Betrayed
by sugarysaga
Summary: When Mikan gets betrayed by her friends, she becomes cold and emotionless.Then,she was sent to America to training.Mikan's friends have no recollection.And she KNOWS her mother is still alive.She knows.Everything can be solved one way or the other,or not?
1. Betrayal

**So here begins our first chapter of Betrayed! :) I hope all of you enjoy this. Do leave by a review because I really appreciate comments.**

**Summary: ****When Mikan gets betrayed by her friends, she becomes cold and emotionless. Then, she was sent to America to training. Mikan's friends have no recollection. And she KNOWS her mother is still alive. Will Mikan forgive her friends and find her mother? Will she find new love on the way and forget about Natsume?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gauken Alice. I just own this particular plot ;)**

**This chapter has been edited ;)**

0800

The green digital numbers bored dauntingly into a certain brunette's wide eyes. "Eight…? In the morning?" She said, barely above a whisper, clutching her alarm clock gingerly in her trembling hands. Instinctively, she let a high pitched wail, scrambling madly to the bathroom in panic.

Yes, this was our very own Sakura Mikan, who was an absolute klutz in everything she did. Tripping over wires, oversleeping, walking into the fan, brushing her teeth with soap instead of toothpaste…You name it.

And unfortunately for Mikan, today would be the worst day _ever _recorded in her (mental) diary.

After a mad dash to her elementary classroom with half of her pigtailed untied, she was pleasantly surprised to see that Jinno Sensei was not in class yet. She realised with a start, that she had actually set her alarm clock to an hour earlier, so as to not be late for class.

Conveniently putting her idiocy aside as if it did not matter at all, she greeted her classmates as cheerily as she could. "Good morning, Hotaru chan, Anna chan, Nonoko chan, Ruka kun, Koko kun, Natsume kun! How was your sleep?" She grinned widely as she walked towards her seat. "You know, I thought I was late when I woke up today, so I ran here as fast as I could! I totally forgot that I had set my alarm an hour earlier so that I wouldn't be late! Well, I'm so glad I'm early for—" She frowned at Natsume, who was also her three years boyfriend. "Hey! I'm trying to sit down, stop kicking my chair over!"

"You're too fucking noisy; my ears are bleeding, _stupid girl_," Natsume sneered, his crimson orbs flashing dangerously at Mikan.

"Well, that gave you no right to kick my chair, I could have gotten injured!" She retorted. Natsume kicked her chair harder in response, making it topple over and fall to the ground.

She frowned harder and sighed. Maybe Natsume was in a bad mood today. "Well, it doesn't matter," she mumbled to herself before turning to Hotaru. "Hotaru chan!" She squealed excitedly, kneeling at the side of Hotaru's table. "What are you making this time? Penguin?"

Mikan pouted slightly when Hotaru made no move to acknowledge her. "Hey, Hotaru chan," She whined. "Hey, hey, hey!"

Hotaru elbowed Mikan out of her way. "Move it, you're in my way." She said without as much as a glance at Mikan.

"Oh," Mikan breathed. "Well, if you say so Hotaru…" She turned to look over to her other classmates and sighed mentally. They were all immersed in their own conversations.

She sullenly took a seat at the back of the classroom. Well, they weren't like her; the rest of her classmates were busy and had social lives. Maybe they didn't like her anymore, she thought, slightly horrified. That would explain why all of them had not been talking to her for the past week. Paling, she shook her head violently to clear herself of such thoughts. That can't be possible, she reasoned, I'm their good friend!

The rest of the day passed by without any significant moments. Mikan's cheerfulness was plummeting with every hour, and none of her classmates were willing to talk to her.

When Mikan decided to grab a packet drink from a vending machine after school hours, she received the shock of her life.

"Yes, don't you all agree?" Mikan recognised that voice to be Anna's. Instinctively, she hid behind the vending machine.

"Mikan's seriously getting on my nerves. She's too hyper and it's wearing me out; I can't stand it any longer," Nonoko continued after Anna.

"She's just trying to get Natsume's and Ruka's attention! I used to be able to put up with her in the past, but now I just can't!" Sumire huffed angrily. "Hotaru, you've known her for years, what do you think?"

"Absolutely annoying and nerve grating."

"You can't balme her," Natsume said with a smirk. "After all, that was her upbringing. Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to be her boyfriend. Sure, she has the looks, but all she does is whine and clings."

Mikan couldn't believe her ears. They were joking, weren't they? Tears welled up in her eyes as she clutched her carton of juice in her hands. She slumped onto the floor and hid her head in between her knees, not wanting to hear any part of their gossips.

"Weren't they my friends?" She rasped out desperately to herself, her mind whirling.

That night, Mikan never went back to her dorm, and everything went downhill from there.

**Yup, that was the first chapter. Sorry if it's short, please do leave a review! :)**


	2. America

**Here's the second chapter of Betrayed! Please do enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own! :)**

**Mikan trains with Persona in this story, by the way :)**

**This chapter has been edited! **

Mikan brought a hand up to push a branch out of her face. It was a mistake to spend the night in the Northern Forest, she realized. After being ambushed by grizzly bears while she tried to sleep, she decided to play safe and stay awake through the night.

"_Today was fantastic!" _She thought to herself sarcastically, burning a twig that almost poked her eye out. _"I just had to make the day worse for myself."_

She continued tracking through the forest for the next few hours, stopping to rest only when grizzly bears crossed her path. She lost track of time halfway through her night walk, and finally stopped to properly rest when a certain mentor blocked her path.

Mikan blinked. "Persona?" She eyed the man fully clad in black. "What are you doing here?"

Said person snorted. "Searching for _you._" He shot an accusing glare at Mikan. "Why can't you act more normal? A normal human would spend their night in their dorms, on their bed."

"I wasn't normal to begin with," Mikan shot back. And that much was true. Mikan had exceptional talent in combat and she possessed the two handiest alice _ever_. "And so? What's the problem?"

"Tangerine," he called, reverting into his formal tone. "You'll be heading to the Alice Academy in America tomorrow. The teachers there are highly skilled, and you would be able to progress much more significantly over there."

Mikan raised an eyebrow and let out a huff. "So that means you have nothing left to teach me?"

"Don't get cocky, Mikan. I can take you on anytime." Persona rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you'll leave at ten tomorrow and you still have to attend your classes before that. So you better hurry back now and pack your stuffs, you don't have much time left."

"Yeah, whatever," Mikan snorted. "You nag too much, Persona."

Persona chose to ignore that insult. "So, what made you stay overnight in the Forbidden Forest?" He raised his eyebrows at Mikan's sudden change in emotions.

"My friends were truly not my friends in the first place," She mumbled softly, not meaning for Persona to actually hear it.

Persona paused thoughtfully before speaking. "Well, even if they're not your truly your friends," He ruffled her hair affectionately. "You know you can count on us; Narumi, Youchi and I. We're like family, after all."

Mikan smiled woefully. "I know," She said softly. "I'll get going then."

She teleported back into her dorm after nodding to Persona. The moment she stepped into her room, she winced slightly.

"Too many pictures that stab me right in my heart," she mused, looking at the framed photographs in disdain. Without much of a thought, she burned the pictures to ashes, the faint scent of smoke polluting the air. "I'll never trust them again."

An awkward silence filled the air as everyone fidgeted in their seats. The silence was just too overwhelming for a chaotic class like class 4B.

"Class…?" Narumi called out hesitatingly, shell shocked at the silence. When he received no reply, he turned to a student sitting in the front row for answers.

Yume Kokoro, with the usual goofy smile on his face, purposefully looked to Mikan. Narumi's eyes followed after Koko's gaze, and he felt a stab of panic in his heart.

"Mikan chan…?"

A stifling silence washed over the whole class as they watched Mikan reply in a dull tone. Narumi noticed that a few of his students were barely able to restrain themselves from going over to shake Mikan out of her uncharacteristic daze.

"Yes, Narumi Sensei?" She deadpanned, annoyed at the attention she was getting. Didn't they hate her guts? Why couldn't they just ignore her like they did everyday?

Narumi swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. The dead tone in Mikan's voice had only spiked his worries. "Are you okay?"

He watched as Mikan stared blankly at him. "Yes, I'm fine," She replied after a moment of silence. He continued watching Mikan with careful eyes. "Are you sure?" He asked doubtfully, worry seeping into his voice.

Mikan paused as her eyes trailed up to the clock on the wall. "Yes, I'm fine," She sighed wearily. "It doesn't matter anyway."

Just as she said that, the classroom door slammed open, revealing a group of men fully dressed in black leather. Mikan rolled her eyes. "Great timing and grand entrance, as per usual." She slung her backpack over her shoulders and walked to a patiently waiting Persona. "Well, goodbye then," She called out to the class. "It was nice being your acquaintance while it lasted, and I hope I don't have to see you anytime soon."

She slammed the classroom door close for a good measure, leaving the class shocked out of their wits.

Just then, Narumi phone buzzed loudly, capturing the attention of the class. His eyes widened slightly as he read the message and he choked on his spit.

"N-Narumi Sensei? What does it say?" Tobita Yuu questioned timidly.

"M-Mikan," he croaked out. "Mikan…She…left for Alice Academy in another country…"

The reaction from the class was instant. A few of Mikan closest friends practically shoved the table out of their way and ran after Mikan, slamming the door open with surprising strength for an elementary kid. One by one, the rest of the class followed their examples and chased after Mikan.

Soon, Narumi found himself to be alone and stupefied at his student's reactions. He smiled faintly to himself. "Mikan…you sure have made some good friends there…"

**ANNNDDDDDD TADAHHHHHHHHH!**

**Do leave a review and tell me about how I've done! Sorry if it's short, it'll get longer over time! Oh and Persona, Youchi, Narumi and Mikan are sort of a family; they're very close. I tried to make it as light as possible! :)**


	3. Don't leave us, Mikan

**So here's chapter 3 of Betrayed and it's super short!**

**Disclaimer: Own nothing!**

**This chapter has been edited.**

With Mikan

"Mikan, promise me!" Persona said, highly annoyed at Mikan's stubbornness. "Or no Howalons when you get back!"

Mikan's eyes promptly widened in horror. "Alright, I promise, I promise! I promise I'll return safely, not overuse my alices, stay out of danger's way, and contact you with the alice stone you gave me! I promise, I swear, so leave my howalons out of this!" She visibly relaxed when she saw Persona nod his head in satisfaction. "So, tell Narumi papa and You chan that I'll contact them soon. Don't get too soft on your students while I'm in America, alright?" She smiled, sniffing a little. "And I'm not crying, I just have the flu."

Persona nodded, not trusting his voice enough to speak. He waved at Mikan who smiled and proceeded to enter the limousine. A drop of tear fell silently as Persona teleported away, parting ways with Mikan for real.

Just then, after Mikan had entered the limousine, the students of class 4B arrived. They stared at the limousine slowly disappearing into the horizon in disbelief.

A certain flame caster and a certain genius inventor took Mikan's depart harder than everybody else. They could only watch on in dread as the rest of the class desperately tried to stop the limousine.

They were too late.

"_Heheheee…And so the curtains are drawn and we come to the opening of our final act…From here on, it's my show!"_

**And yup, that's it! I bet none of you read this author thing over here, anyway.**

**Do leave a review! **


	4. Yuka

**Hellooooooooo everyoneeeeeeee how 'chaaaaa doin'? :D So here's the next chapter! This chapter and the next will be tidbits about Mikan's past. Please do read through them! :)**

**Disclaimer: Only own the plot! The song used is Only Human by K! :)**

**This chapter has been edited!**

"_Mikan!"_

_Mikan looked up from her textbook in shock as the classroom door slammed open, revealing a woman in her twenties._

"_Mom?" Mikan frowned in confusion._

"_Get over here, hurry!" Yuka shouted in panic as beads of perspiration trickled down her rosy cheeks. She bit her lips in frustration as Mikan hurriedly made her way over to her mother—much too slow for Yuka's liking._

"_What's going on! You can't just barge into a class—" Yuka threw a warning glance at the male teacher who immediately kept his mouth shut in response. Yuka hurriedly cradled a five year old Mikan in her arms and without much thought, ran across the classroom and did something that could have potentially scarred Mikan for life._

_With an ear deafening cry, the window shattered into a thousand pieces. The whole class sat still in shocked silence after they watched Yuka jump out of the window, carrying Mikan in her arms._

_A group of men then dashed into the classroom. They did exactly the same thing as Yuka: jump through the class window after they asked the teacher where Yuka went._

_The teacher was too stunned reply, but his students replied for him in fear. "They jumped through the window!" A man then nodded as thanks and jumped through the window, shattering another window, followed by his men._

_Yuka ran as fast as she possible could with Mikan flailing around in her arms. Despite her desperate attempt to escape, the group of men soon caught up in no time at all. Yuka, thinking quick, set Mikan on the floor and hastily placed a sloppy kiss on her forehead. __"__Mikan, go to Hotaru's place and tell her parent's what had happened. Also, bear this in mind, those guys are from a person named Death and they want you in their hands. The reason is they want your power for destruction. Hurry Mikan, go now!"_

_Yuka, sensing a presence behind her, hurriedly stood up and turned around. "Remember Mikan, no matter what happens, keep your friends close. They're important. I love—"_

_Yuka did not get to complete her sentence._

**This chapter is super short, sorry for that! The next chapter will also be a flashback! Please do leave a review; I love them!**


	5. Hotaru's and Mikan's promise

**Here's chapter 4 of betrayed! I hope you enjoy! It's another flashback of Mikan's past!**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot. The song used is Only Human by K.**

**Enjoy!**

**This chapter has been edited.**

"_Hotaru! Hotaru!" Mikan shouted frantically as she pounded on her best friend's door._

"_What do you want?" Hotaru hissed in annoyance after she answered the door. Her stoic expression melted immediately when she saw Mikan in an emotionally unstable state._

_Mikan spilled the scene she had just witnessed to Hotaru and her parents._

"_I...Mom...uhh...She...She...She..." Mikan started, but she was not able to complete a sentence._

"_Calm down and take a deep breath," Hotaru suggested, frowning in worry._

_Mikan took a deep breath and tried again. "I was in class when mom suddenly barged in. She carried me in a rush and jumped through the window. I saw people in black chasing after us and mom said that they were the people from death and they wanted my power for then told me to find you...She was then shot in her heart by a gun...She wasn't given a chance to even complete her last sentence!" At the last part, Mikan began to sob uncontrollably._

_**On the opposite coast of sadness **_

_**is something called a smile**_

"_I... was so confused! I didn't know what to do! Mom...was murdered…Bring her back! No...Why her? Mom...Don't leave me…Don't…"_

_**On the opposite coast of sadness **_

_**Is something called a smile **_

_**But before we can go there, **_

_**Is there something we're waiting for?**_

_She buried her face into Hotaru's chest as Hotaru patted Mkan's head in attempt to comfort Mikan. Her parents could only clench their jaws in anger and frustration._

_"I'm all alone…"_

_**In order to chase our dreams, we can't have a reason to run away **_

_**We've got to go, to that far away summers day**_

_SLAP_

"_Baka! You're not alone! Who am I? Who's standing beside you? Aren't we with you? Trust us, Mikan...You're not alone! Don't cry Mikan...It's no use to cry. The past is the past! Look towards the future! We're here with you…You're fine! You're alright! You're strong after all...Mikan is strong!"_

_**If we find it tomorrow, we can't sigh**_

_**Because like a boat that opposes the stream **_

_**We have to walk straight on**_

_Mikan eyes widened fractionally before saying, "H...Hotaru...You're right...It isn't me if I'm just sitting around mourning. Arigato Hotaru, Auntie, Uncle...Really..." She whispered as she stood up, wiped her tears away and smiled, "I'm not going to give up!"_

_**In a place worn down by sadness **_

_**Something called a miracle, is waiting **_

_**Yet we are still searching **_

_**For the sunflower that grows at the end of spring**_

_"Hotaru..." Her parents looked at Hotaru worriedly, expecting her to say something important. "Isn't it time to tell her?"_

_**The warrior who awaits the morning light **_

_**Before he can clasp it with red nails, his tears glitter and fall**_

"_Mikan, listen, I'll only say it once. But, promise me that...you'll always smile, no matter what..."_

"_Hotaru?"_

_**Even if we've grown used to loneliness **_

_**Only relying on the light of the moon **_

_**We have to fly away with featherless wings**_

_**Just go forward, just a little further**_

_"Mikan, I'll be leaving this place. I might not be able to get in contact with you what do what you have promised me. I am going to a new school in Tokyo. However, we won't be apart," She said as she pointed to Mikan's heart." We're linked by our hearts. We're under the same sky, under the same moon, and on the same soil. I'll be back, I promise."_

_**As the rainclouds break**_

_Before Mikan could say anything, two men in black were at the door. Hotaru walked towards them, smiled at Mikan, and nodded her head towards the then vanished._

_**The wet streets sparkling**_

_"HOTARU!" Mikan shouted. But they were already gone._

_**Although it brings only darkness**_

"_I promise..."She said as she looked up to the sky..."Mom…"_

_**A powerful, powerful light **_

_**Helps push us to walk on**_

**And that's it for this chapter! The next chapter will be about Mikan settling in to Alice Academy in America!**

**Please do leave a review!**


	6. Takamichi Nanoha

**Howdyyyyy! Here's chapter 6 of Betrayed and I hope you guys enjoy! Over here, Mikan finally reaches the Alice Academy in America and meets a certain brunette. ;)**

**Disclaimer: Takamichi Nanoha is from Mahou shoujou lyrical Nanoha. It's an awesome anime! I don't own anything, as per usual…**

**This chapter has been edited.**

The Alice Academy in America was humongous, Mikan realised. It was decorated in glass and jade-coloured marble with huge crystallised words bearing the name 'Alice Academy'.

"Welcome!" A melodic voice broke Mikan from her chain of thoughts. "Are you Sakura Mikan?"

Mikan shifted her gaze from the building to the lithe girl smiling brightly at her. The girl had chestnut brown hair tied into two side ponytails—just like Mikan. Mikan couldn't help but stare wordlessly at the bubbly girl. They were too similar.

"Well, I'll take that as a yes, then! I've heard a lot about you from your mentors in Japan, and I was really excited to meet you!" She gushed and reached a hand out for Mikan to shake. "My name is Takamichi Nanoha! I transferred over from Japan to America, just like you! I hope we can get along well!" She finished, smiling brightly.

Mikan stared coldly at the outreached hand. Nanoha was too similar to how she had used to be. "Well, I don't," She replied with a scoff.

Nanoha chose to ignore Mikan's look of disdain and continued of happily. "I heard you have two of the handiest alice ever! My alice allows me to fight and protect everyone by transforming me into a mage. It's rather dull compared to yours, huh," She huffed. "But no matter, I'm ace at being a mage!"

"Protect?" Mikan snorted. "All you need to do is protect yourself and screw the others!" Her eyes flashed with masked fury.

Nanoha smiled. "If my alice can be used to protect the ones whom I love, why not put it to good use then?" She caught the look on Mikan's face and promptly changed the topic. "Well, you might want to attend classes today, since you're already here and all. I can bring you there, since we are in the same class. Let's go pack your stuffs first, alright?" She suggested with a bright smile. After receiving a nod of affirmation from Mikan, she grinned even wider.

"Well then," She yelled out as she dragged Mikan by her arm. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" _"I want to be your friend…You have such a lonely look in your eyes…"_

**Short chappie yet again. It'll get longer with the next few chapters! Please do leave a review!**


	7. Mikan's little intoduction

**Annnnnndddddddd here's chapter 7! Thanks for staying with me!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything but Billy Sensei and my m&m's over here!**

**This chapter has been edited.**

**Outside the classroom**

"My name is Billy Sensei, please come in when I give you the cue. You may speak Japanese while you are here as all of us are fluent in it. Take your time learning English, until then you may converse in Japanese." The blonde haired teacher instructed to a moody Mikan. He then stepped into his chaotic class with a sigh, dodging the duster that came flying from nowhere. "Class!" He called out, trying to get their attention, but to no avail. "CLASS! LISTEN! WE'RE HAVING A NEW TRANSFER STUDENT!" He yelled out desperately, trying to get his problem class to glue their asses to their seats. At the words, 'new transfer student', all the students immediately sat down.

"Teehee...I wonder how they will react when they see Mikan chan," thought Nanoha mischievously as she settled down in her seat. She had left Mikan with Billy sensei and headed straight to class without Mikan, feeling overly excited.

Billy sensei nodded his head, signalling Mikan to enter the classroom. Mikan took the cue, and silently walked into the class and faced the students with a poker face.

She scanned the students in the class.

"..."

"..."

"Please introduce yourself, Sakura..." Murmured Billy sensei, not able to withstand the tension.

"You don't have to tell me that, I know what to do." She retorted dryly, irking the male teacher greatly. "Sakura Mikan, I'm a special star. My ability classes are dangerous and special. Screw with me and I'll screw you back." She ended her little speech with a glare to top it up.

3...

2 ...

1...

"What's your alice?"

"How old are you?"

"You're smoking hot!"

"Be my girlfriend!"

"Don't act like you're cool when you're not, whore!"

"Don't even try to steal my boyfriend away! You are such a lowlife; nobody would even go out with you!"

"Sit next to me!"

"Be my partner!"

"Get outta this Academy, bitch, you don't belong here!"

"What's with your attitude? It sucks!"

There were more comments but Mikan interrupted. "S.E.C and nullification alice, 18, fuck off, double fuck off, that's my personality, that's called the pot calling the kettle black, it's not up to me, it's not my choice, of course, I belong to Japan." She replied blankly, daring them to ask any other useless questions.

This stunned the class for a few more minutes as they tried to remember their order of questions.

In a split second, squeals and cheers erupted from the class.

"Shut up! My eardrums are precious and I would like them intact! Just tell me where the hell I am sitting!" Mikan shouted, shooting Billy her deadliest glare.

"N-n-next to Na..Nanoha C..chan..." He stuttered, frightened stiff.

Mikan strode towards Nanoha and shot a look of disgust at her, which indicated that she was still pissed.

Nanoha laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. "Oh no, I don't know what to say!"

Mikan ignored Nanoha and slumped down into her seat. Nanoha sighed sliently and clutched a red coloured ball which was the size of a pearl._"Getting her to open up to me will be hard, very hard."_

On the other hand, Mikan was thinking, "Alright, this is hell. This sucks...I hate the cute girls wannabes the most!" She cupped her face with her hands and started to tune out Billy's babbling.

...

"ra..."

"kura..."

"SAKURA!"

The annoying voice of Billy's awoke Mikan from her slumber.

"WAKE UP ALREADY! NEXT TIME, DON'T EVER TRY TO SLEEP THROUGHT HOMEROOM, DO YOU GET ME? YOU SLEPT THROUGHOUT IT! Geez! It's time for ability class. You will go to special class first for half an hour before proceeding to the dangerous ability class. Go for your break and COME BACK HERE! I have a feeling that you will ditch so let me tell you this, DONT EVER TRY TO DITCH MY CLASSES! Get it?"

"No." Mikan replied monotonously as she walked out of the class rebelliously.

"You little!" Billy screeched at Mikan as he chased after her. Unfortunately, Mikan slammed the door right at his face, causing him to hit the door with his head.

"Serves you right..." She said as she strode down the corridor, smirking. "Most likely, that idiot should be complaining about the huge red mark on his face by now."

As she was walking, a voice behind her suddenly said, "Hey there hottie, care to hang out with me?"

"It'll be fun, I promise. Come on babe," The person seductively edged closer to Mikan, who simply tried to ignore him. He noticed it and grabbed her waist.

Mikan burst out in flames of fury and thought angrily," That's it! I don't have that much of patience! I'm going to dislocate both his arms and legs and wrenched those two little eyeballs out!"

"Hey you bastard, don't touch her."

Mikan eyes widened and she stood rooted to the ground. "No way..." **(A/n by the way guys, her back was still facing them)**

**And that's it for this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! Please do leave a review!**


	8. Why are you here!

**Hey guys, this is chapter eight of Betrayed! Please enjoy! And don't kill me for being a party pooper. :)**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

**This chapter has been edited.**

"Could it be?" Mikan eyes were wide as she remained rock still.

The guy released his grip on Mikan's waist and turned around.

"Heh, realised it only now?"

"What the hell?" The guy cursed. "I can't move!"

"That's right, I have the shadow manipulation alice!"

Mikan's ears twitched in anticipation, her eyes widening.

"Andou Tsubasa, nice to meet you."

Mikan then turned around in a flash and dashed straight to him for a bear hug. Her once empty, cold eyes were now brimming with happiness.

"TSUBASA SEMPAIIIIIII!" Mikan screamed as she tackled him with a hug, causing him to topple over.

"Hey! Now, now, I don't want to land in the hospital now when I've just transferred a few hours ago!" He joked, rubbing the back of his head that had bumped onto the ground.

"SEMPAI! Why are you here? Why, why, why, why, why, WHYYYYYYYYY?"

"Well, I'm supposed to take care of you..." He replied awkwardly.

"Eh? Honto? Then Tsubasa Sempai, you'll aways be by my side?"

"Yeah, that's right, Mikan. Why? Don't you want me here?"

Mikan eyes widened as she shook her head furiously. "NO! Don't leave me! I'm SOOOOOOO HAPPYY! ARIGATO KAMI SAMA! ARIGATO!" Mikan practically screamed into his ears.

Tsubasa couldn't help but smile at Mikan's childishness. "Yeah! Saa, it's almost time! Let's go! We're already very late!"

"Late? Go? Where? Huh? Huh? Huh?" It looks like our dense Mikan is back!

"Ability class. We're both in special and dangerous! Isn't that good?" With that, he held her hand and walked towards the special ability class.

"Haiii! "

As time passed while they were walking, Mikan slowly calmed down and reverted back to her emotionless facade. Her face was blank and her eyes were cold.

Tsubasa, being an observant guy, noticed it, but he decided not to comment on it. After all, he had heard from his friends about Mikan. _"Whoever makes her suffer even more will be ripped into two personally by me," _He gritted his teeth.

"Here goes," Mikan breathed as she stood before the classroom. She turned the doorknob of the classroom and entered silently, followed by Tsubasa.

"WELCOME TO THE SPECIAL ABILTY CLASS, NEWCOMERS!"

Mikan stared blankly at them while Tsubasa readily introduced himself.

"I'm Andou Tsubasa, and this is Sakura Mikan, We're the transfer students. Nice to meet 'cha."

The students then introduced themselves before announcing that it was time to party.

"LET"S CELEBRATE! " The class shouted in excitement.

"Hmm...This class is so familiar..." Mikan thought as she recalled the memories of the special ability class in Japan. "God, no...I'm already starting to miss them..."

"Umm...Mikan Chan?" A familiar yet annoying voice penetrated her train of thoughts.

"UGGHHH...Not you again..." Mikan hissed, slapping her forehead with her hand in annoyance as she glared at the person.

"Ahahaha...Yes, it's me again!" Yes, the person before her just had to be Nanoha. "Teeheee and I'm in the dangerous class too!"

"Get. away. from. me. I don't want you to appear before me ever again." Mikan hissed in annoyance. "Why am I always with this brat? Urghh!" She lamented as she cursed under her breath.

Mikan inhaled deeply as she started to ignore Nanoha's whining and complaints. She grabbed a cup of juice and gulped it down before helping herself to the feast.

Tsubasa noticed Mikan at the table and went to join her. "Hora Mikan, be a little cheerful here would you? After all, this is not an everyday experience, so enjoy it a little more!"

Mikan rolled her eyes. "I'll do what I want, Tsubasa Sempai,"

Tsubasa could only sigh at her reply and decided that he would leave her alone for now.

"Sorry guys, we have to go now! We'll come back later!" Tsubasa yelled out an apology as he walked out of the classroom with Mikan and Nanoha.

To tell the truth, both Nanoha and Tsubasa had totally forgotten that they were supposed to go to their dangerous ability class after thirty minutes attending the special ability class. Only Mikan had remembered and urged Tsubasa to "get his ass over here".

Suddenly, Mikan stopped in her tracks.

"Mikan?" Tsubasa asked in concern. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Tsubasa...There's something terribly wrong and I'm definitely not okay!"

"OH NO, MIKAN! HURRY UP AND GO TO THE NURSE OFFICE!" Tsubasa gasped in horror as he placed his hands on his cheeks.

"No, it's just that...WHY IS THIS IDOIT FOLLOWING US? SHE'S BEEN STALKING ME ALL DAY! AND MY EYES ARE PERFECTLY FINE SO YOU DON'T TELLL ME THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE NURSE OFFICE!" Mikan yelled in anger and frustration as she pointed to Nanoha.

"D-d-de-demo...I- I... WAAAAAAAAA!" Nanoha burst into tears and huddled into a corner, crouching and sobbing.

"Mikan!" Tsubasa reprimanded with a frown as he went over to Nanoha in a desperate attempt to comfort her.

"Daijobu, she's just in a bad mood... You'll be fine, I promise!" He reassured a crying Nanoha

"Honto? Haii! Mikan Chan! Let's go!" Nanoha then dragged Mikan towards the dangerous ability class, leaving a trail of dust behind.

"… Maybe not..." Tsubasa sweat dropped before chasing after them. "OI WAIT FOR ME!"

**A bit half baked but at least it is better than when it has not been edited… Please do review! :)**


	9. Retsu, seiya and Sakura

**Yuki: Hi guys ! Here is the next chapter!**

**Snowflake: Oh yeah, we have created another new story, so we would like you to read it. The name is ' Love cant be forced '**

**This is chapter 9 of Betrayed, please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything! :)**

**This chapter has been edited.**

* * *

Mikan knocked on the door of the dangerous ability class.

"Come in," A voice boomed from inside the classroom.

They entered the class and wiped off any facial expressions that might have been of their face, excluding Nanoha. Well, Nanoha did get serious but she still lookd like the idiot not long ago.

"Andou Tsubasa, has arrived,"

"Mikan Sakura, is here,"

"Raging heart,has arrived," Nanoha called.

Mikan took a look at the classroom. It resembled a forest, suprising Mikan, as she thought that it was a gym or something like that. There was nobody there, except for a lady.

"Yosh, I am your instructor, Sakura." She wore black clothes with a black pair of earings, which was a alice limiter. She had short purple hair that reached to her shoulders and had clear, emerlad eyes.

She bowed to them, shocking Tsubasa and Mikan, as their instructor just BOWED to THEM and she looked like she wasn't cut out for being a dangerous ability coach.

"Tsubasa, Mikan, I have heard about your talent of fighting. And so, I have grouped you together with Nanoha, along with some others, as they're at your level of fighting."

She then looked towards a spot. "Come out."

Two boys then appeared in front of them.

"Li Retsu, a.k.a ice death." A boy spoke up. He was muscular and had silver hair with purple eyes. His eyes were stared at them uninterestedly.

"My name is Li Seiya, a.k.a Brown sparrow, nice to meet you!" A boy with sandy brown hair spoke up. He had a pair of brown eyes to match with his hair and a goofy smirk was plastered on his lips.

"He's showing emotions? Impossible!" both Mikan and Tsubasa thought in shock.

"Just so you know, there's no such thing as not showing emotions when you're not on a mission, get it? However, if you want to hide your emotions during class, I won't stop you. But, please, be a little serious. Now, I want all of you to fight against each other without using your alices. Since Mikan is stronger, she will take on both Nanoha and Retsu while Tsubasa shall take on Seiya. Begin!"

All of them got into their fighting position and started to battle. Both sides were panting furiously after afew minutes but neither of them went down.

Retsu aimed punches at Mikan while she doged it all. At the same time, Nanoha aimed a kick at her back. Mikan, realising Naoha's presence, cursed violently. "Shit, I need to distract him. He wont stop punching...That's it!"

Mikan stopped doging his attacks and hollered at him, causing both nanoha and Retsu to be momentarily distracted, suprised. They lost their concentrations for a moment and Mikan, seeing her chance, jumped backwards behind Nanoha. She then aimed a kick at Nanoha, causing her to topple over before running towards Retsu in high speed. She them punched him (not too hard) in the face.

At the same time...

"Hey, you aren't that bad, you know?" Tsubasa complimented, still in his stance.

"Thanks," Seiya replied betweens pants.

Tsubasa then grabbed Seiya's arm and twisted it. He swung him to the wall with great force. Seiya, thinking quick, used his hands as a shield and then pushed himself back.

"He's strong...He twisted my hands and my arms are injured due to sheilding myself just now...Damn!" Seiya cursed himself for being so careless.

"Shit, his speed is fast and I cant predict his movements...I'm sure in for some deep shit."

They were about to attack again when Sakura Sensei signalled for them to stop.

"YOSH! STOP! THATS IT FOR TODAY!" Sakura yelled at the tops of her lungs. Actually, she's been screaming her head off at them to stop since 10 minutes ago, but they were too engrossed in their battle. This was a good thing in critical situations, though.

All of them stopeed fighting and looked at Sakura Sensei in confusion.

"All of your ability are on par," She explained. "Mikan, Tsubasa, Nanoha, Seiya, Retsu, you are now a group that will stick together at all times! You will alos go together in missions." Both Mikan and Retsu cursed under their breaths.

"Now, introduce yourselves again."

"My name is Li Seiya and my alice is wind. I'm in Mikan's class for Billy's and also in the dangerous ability class. My alias is brown sparrow!" Seiya exclaimed with a large grin adorning his features as he introduced himself.

"My name is Takamichii Nanoha, I'm going to be with Mikan every minute! My alice is to use a device to protect or to attack! My alias is Ranging Heart!"

"Li Retsu, same class as Seiya, Alice of Ice and Fire. Alias is ice death ."

"Oh, Mikan and Tsubasa, you don't have to introduce yourself, we already know you well. Oh and I have to give you an alias... Hmmm...Tsubasa, your alias is shadowed night while Mikan's alias is black theif. Class dismissed!"

All of them were stunned as they stared at her walking figure outside the classroom. and thought ,"How did she thought of that so fast?"

"Even though the alias sucks," Mikan continued with an eye roll.

Suddenly, Sakura Sensei popped out from nowhere and told them, "Your Group Name shall be Kamikaze! Mikan and Retsu is the leader as they're the strongest. Tsubasa, Nanoha and Seiya are the Elements of gods wind and without them, there is no kamikaze. Without the leaders, there's no Kanikaze good luck! Oh and by the way, you have a miision tomorrow at 11 pm. Bye, have a good rest tonight!" And she disappeared.

"Tch...She's too cheerful...Unlike Persona nii..." Mikan muttered. Then, something struck her.

"OH CRAP I FORGOT THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO CONTACT HIM!" She yelled in horror, thinking of the consequences that would follow.

The gang were suprised at her outburst. Or rather, Nanoha was running in circles and Seiya was hiding in a corner, shaking. Retsu, on the other hand, cursed loudly at the damage his ear drums took.

"Holy shit...He's going to kill me! It's been more than 6 hours since I left! He should be going crazy by now!"

"I'll have to wait for them to leave first," She decided, and waited for them to exit the classroom.

Mikan held the stone in her hand and watched it disappear in dread.

"Okay, here goes nothing," She breathed.

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**That's the end of chapter nine...Still readable, I guess. Please do leave a review!**


	10. uh oh Youchi Persona Narumi

**Here's chapter 10 of Betrayed where Mikan finally calls Persona and the rest! :) Please enjoy and leave a review!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own~**

**This chapter has been edited.**

* * *

"Mikan, concentrate, concentrate... I know I can't use a new alice well for the first time as it takes up a lot of energy, but after this it'll be simple. All I have to do is to concentrate," She murmured to herself in encouragement as she shut her eyes tight.

After a few minutes, beads of sweat trickled down her forehead and her head started to spin. Her alice was a special kind of alice. Her alice will never disappear, but it'll only drains her energy, but if her energy level is below 10%, she will have a 85% chance of dying. After the battle with Retsu and Nanoha had tire her physically and now, using an alice she has not used before made her head spin.

After a while more, she _finally _managed to use her alice. Her head ceased spinning a little but not completely. She only had about 72% of energy left.

"Uhhhh, Persona?" She called out hesitatingly.

_ "..." _

_ "DAMM YOU MIKAN! YOU'RE LATE! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR CALL SINCE FIVE HOURS AGO, YOU IDIOT!" (_Persona)

"Well, I was, um, kind of busy?" (Mikan)

_ "Don't give me that crap, nee chan!"_ A different voice spoke out in exasperation.

"YOU CHAN?" Mikan gasped.

_ "Mikan onee chan, do you wanna die?" _His voice was filled with threat. Mikan gulped nervously.

"No...?"

_ "Then WHY THE HELL YOU DIDN'T AT LEAST SAY SOMETHING TO ME OR NARUMI PAPA BEFORE YOU LEFT?"_

"Because If I bid farewell to you guys, It would be harder for us to part. You know that I don't want to leave you guys, You chan, Persona!"

There was a moment of silence.

_"Mikan onee chan, I-I'll...I'll wait for you._"

"Thanks, You chan**. **Where's Narumi papa?"

** Mikan's pov**

"Thanks, You chan. Where's Narumi papa?"

_"MIIIIKAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!"_

No doubt, that was Narumi.

"Na-narumi papa..."

_ "MIKAN CHAN! Did you know? I was so lonely! I almost flew to America to meet you! I can't stand this anymore!"_

"You're over reacting, Narumi," We deadpanned.

"I'm fine, thank you for worrying about me... But Mikan's strong, Mikan will be alright! I know that you are acting fine but deep in your heart, you're sad... You're acting like that since you don't want me to worry about you... I'll will rush back to you as soon as I get back. Alright?" I was controlling my sobs. I didn't want them to know that I'm crying. Yes, I wanted to leave _those idiots _but...

"Hora, Mikan, cheer up! I know that you crying... Don't cry,"

"Persona, how did you know..." I choked out between sobs, feeling suprised.

"Mikan, I've known you for god knows how long and obviously I know you well. Don't cry, Mikan, smile instead. Your smile is really pretty, you know,"

"Mikan, you better not cry cause if this will hinder your training I'm not gonna let all of us, including myself, to talk to you anymore. Datte, if you have to stay there longer than you are supposed to, I'm really going to kill you!" You chan muttered darkly.

"And Mikan...Please don't try to be too emotionless, and since what I wanted to say has been covered by the devils here, so this is the only thing left. Don't overstress yourself, relax at times. Call us if you have any problems you can't solve. Remember that. We love you. Try your hardest!"

"Y-Yes!" Tears started to flow out endlessly as I smiled at them through my tears. "Th-Thank-"

_**bzzzt**_

I stared blankly at the a while and let out a low chuckle. You chan must have known that I was crying somehow and cut off the line...

"Thank you, You chan, Narumi papa, Persona..."

**Meanwhile in Japan**

"What's this?" thought Jinno sensei furiously as he steped into the classroom. Natsume, Hotaru, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, Sumire, Mochou, Koko, Yuu and many others weren't there. He counted the missing number of students. "1..2..3..4...12..13...14...15..16...18...18 people ditching class? This is unexplainable! Ridiculous!" Jinno sensei was livid.

"Oi! You!" He yelled, pointing to a boy. "Where why what when how?"

"Mikan has left us and all of us are depressed. So, 18 of us decided to ditch while we stayed even though we felt like following them. End of explanation." He deadpanned, rolling his eyes sarcastically at Jinno Sensei.

"What do you mean they decided to-" Jinno's eyes shot over to a student who calmly walked out of the classroom. "Is there any point in attending his lesson?" He called out with a sneer. "It's just a waste of our time."

"He's right," Whispers rose among the students. "Stupid Jin Jin, you're not even teaching us anything; you're just screaming! All of us are very sad that Mikan left and you're not helping." Another boy scowled as he stood up and stalked out of the classroom.

Murmurs filled the silence as Jinno stood, stupified as the rest of his students followed their brave classmates' examples.

Jinno was rendered sppechless. His jaws dropped to the ground (stretching his very very very long wrinkles) and his eyes bulged out comically.

"DAMMIT SAKURA THIS ALL ALL YOUR DAMMED FAULT!" Jinno screeched, seething in fury.. Oh and, according to the students in the school, the one who broke the Academy's windows were Jinno.

Right, where was I? Oh yeah...Jinno was screeeeeeeeeching.

He walked out of the class and quickly apologised to a blonde girl who was wearing a pretty smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, but because of Sakura, somebody that you should get get involved with, everybody ditched my class. I am not able to introduce you to them today. I'm sorry, Luna."

"Daijoubu, I'll get Narumi to introduce me to the class ne, Jinno sensei." She said sweetly.

**Back to America**

"Mikan chan? Why are you staring into space? Come on, lets go! We're in the same class in ALL subjects, so let us try to be friends!" Nanoha appeared out of nowhere and dragged her away with an energetic smile.

"Holy shit, what did I ever do to you that makes you hate ne so much, kami?"

"Mikan chan! It's a must that we stick together! We're a gang! Elements of god's wind! We'll excluding Tsubasa kun, we have to always be with each other in classes!" She persuaded enthusiastically, still dragging Mikan by arm.

"Never," Mikan thought as she rolled her eyes. Then something clicked in her head and she forcefully stopped Nanoha from dragging her any further. "Now just wait a moment here!"

Nanoha stopped and turned to look at Mikan, head tiliting in a perfect act of innocent confusion.

Mikan scowled. "Isn't it break time now? Why did you bring me to the classroom you idiot?"

Nanoha blinked.

"Eeeeh?"

"Dont 'eh' me!" Mikan mumbled softly, exasperated at Nanoha's slowness.

"Oh I totally forgot about that! I'm so sorry, Mikan! I'll give you a tour of this school as an apology!"

And because Nanoha was Nanoha, Mikan had no choice but to accept her fate.

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**Tadahhhhh! It's a little longer this time! Thanks for taking your time to read this! How about sparing one more minute and review this chapter! I'll be indebted to you for lifeeeeee! :)**


	11. Mission and a new bonding

_****_**Hi guys, how are you doing? :) Here's chapter 11 of Betrayed, and we are still moving very slowly! Slow fiction and all that! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**This chapter has been edited!**

* * *

**At The Cafeteria**

Nanoha babbled all the way about God-knows-what and Mikan did not even bother to listen, let alone to reply her.

"This baka is even worse than how I used to be!" Mikan groaned mentally, feeling overly exhausted.

By now, Mikan was getting used to ignoring her, but a sentence caught her attention.

"From now on, We, the gang shall be together in classes, breaks, after classes, and missions. For you and I, let's just say that since I'm in special ability class too, I'm going to be like super glue!"

Mikan cursed. She went ahead to look for Tsubasa, asking him to eat with her at the school's garden, totally ignoring Nanoha.

"… School's garden? Okay. Wait for me a minute, I'll go call Retsu and Seiya!" Nanoha squealed as she ran off.

"NO!" Mikan yelled, but was too late.

"That idiot!" She seethed. "I'm really going to kill her!"

"That's what Imai felt last time," Tsubasa joked and immediately regretted his words.

"Let's go," She mumbled after a moment of silence and proceeded to the rooftop, not bothering to see if Tsubasa was following.

**School Gardens**

All of them, including Retsu and Seiya, settled at a shady place near the bushes. Mikan took out her Obento -don't ask me where she got it but it looked so yummy- and sat down under the shade of a tree.

"Uwaaaa!" Nanoha squealed as soon as Mikan opened her Obento.

"It looks sooooo delicious! Sugoi! Mikan Chan, did you make all of this?" She asked, drooling all over the food, but luckily Mikan saved it by creating a barrier around it.

"It's none of your business and stop drooling onto my food!" Mikan scowled.

Nanoha, suddenly, started to bawl hysterically.

"WAAAA! MIKAN CHAN! FORGIVE ME! REALLY, I HAD NO INTENTION OF EATING YOUR OBENTO! PLEASE BELIEVE ME!"

"She cannot be trusted," both Tsubasa and Seiya said at once, sweat dropping. On the other hand, Mikan and Retsu just, well, didn't care. They just ate their lunch in peace and ignored whatever the hell was going around them.

While they were eating, Retsu snuck quick glances at Mikan. Mikan didn't notice as she was stuffing herself with food.

_"I'm so hungry! Since that trip from Japan to America I didn't eat anything! I'm glad I prepared this beforehand!"_ She thought, smiling to herself quietly.

_"Hmmm…..That girl…Why does she keep that cold façade on all day long when all I see is just loneliness in her eyes? Well, I behave like her to make sure that the AAO believes that hurting my friends will not affect me. But, this girl…What is exactly her reason?"_ Retsu thought in wonder, looking at Mikan from the corner of his eyes.

"Stop staring at me already, dumbass", was the six word long sentence that snapped Retsu out from his train of thoughts.

Retsu cursed and thought in his mind, _"She's too freaking alert, even when we're having lunch!"_

"Sorry, but don't flatter yourself. I was staring at the dog behind you," He retorted smartly and smirked.

And true enough, there was a chihuahua barking happily from a meter behind Mikan..

"Mikan, don't mind Retsu! Once you get to know him better, you'll find out that he's just shy!" Seiya winked.

"…"

The silence dragged on for the next half and hour as the gang ate peacefully. They burned the trash away into ashes (courtesy of Retsu and Mikan) as soon as they were finished with their food.

"It's almost time for class, let's go!" Tsubasa stood up and dusted imaginary dust off his trousers.

Nanoha and Seiya then shouted to Retsu and Mikan, "Hurry! We'll be late for Billy's class!"

"I'm ditching," The duo replied instantly.

"I'm never going to attend his lessons. Next time, just count me out," replied Mikan casually.

"No way, I've always ditched his lessons, what makes you think today was any different?" answered Retsu.

"Besides, he's so gay!" they said in unison.

"Oh, he's like Narumi I guess?" Tsubasa asked.

"Say that again and I'll chop off your head, Tsubasa Sempai. Otou san is more cheerful but Billy's just..." Mikan shrugged as she trailed off.

"That's not right, Mikan Chan, Retsu Kun! Retsu kun, you should set a better example for Mikan so-" Nanoha was cut off.

"-Shut up" Retsu interrupted with an irritated twitch.

Nanoha sweat dropped and turned to Mikan.

"Mikan Chan, you should make a good impression of—"

"Get lost" Mikan interrupted.

"Bu—"Nanoha was cut off again. She wasn't able to say any further because Tsubasa and Seiya was dragging her away.

"WHY AM I ALWAYS GETTNG INTERRUPTED? IT'S SO—"

"SHUT UP!" Everyone yelled at her.

"YOU'RE IRRITATING!"

"Bu—"

"Say another word and I'll tape your mouth shut!" Seiya muttered darkly.

"That was unexpected." Tsubasa said in surprise, whistling.

With that, Nanoha zipped her lips and let herself get dragged by Seiya roughly.

"Oops, I forgot that Seiya is really scary when you piss him off…Hehe…My bad…"

Tsubasa sighed before giving Retsu and Mikan a last wave before chasing after them.

"Finally….' Retsu muttered.

"They're gone…" Mikan continued.

They looked at each other for a split second and then looked away.

An uncomfortable silence washed over them them but too bad for it, for they both didn't care.

"Say…" Retsu broke the silence. "Why don't you smile?" He looked at her in the eye.

"…"

"Answer me, you idiot."

"Fine, if I can trust you guys enough, I'll tell."

"Hn…" He replied, although he knew Mikan's answer didn't really counted as one, but he knew there was a reason for her to act like that. Something...

"Retsu, Why don't you smile?"

"Because I don't want the AAO to hurt my friends, thinking that it will cause me to surrender."

"I see…"

After a moment of silence, Mikan spoke up. "I think I'll trust you guys a little, as allies, just allies, since we're going to work together in missions. Not friends, but allies. I don't think I can be your friend though…I'm afraid," Mikan spoke softly, vowing her head low.

"Afraid of what?" Retsu asked, and immediately regretted it when he saw Mikan's facial expression.

"I'll tell you when I trust you enough," Mikan repeated, but there was something different in her tone.

"But your eyes are screaming out that you want somebody to be by your side." And immediately, he cursed under his breath again when he saw Mikan shrink into a slight depression.

"…"

Mikan then stood up and dusted her skirt.

"I'm leaving," Was the only word she muttered. She turned around and started walking.

"Mikan,"

She whipped her head around, eyes widening at the name 'Mikan'.

"Find me anytime if there is something bothering you."

Her gaze softened and nodded her head. With that, she walked away.

As she was walking around the corridors, her heart was thumping wildly. Her face was scarlet red, and she thought hysterically. "What is wrong with me? Why is my heart beating so fast? 1…2…3… Okay, I'm calm. But why? It is the same feeling with…..Natsume." Her eyes softened in pain.

"Huh?"

She stopped short in her tracks. Her head started to spin and everything faded to black. This could only mean one thing, she was loosing her consciousness.

"Nani..?" Then, there was complete darkness as the last glimmer of light in her vision dimmed.

Retsu was walking back to class 10 minutes after Mikan left. He was walking when he saw someone lying on the ground.

**Retsu Pov**

I was walking back to class when I saw someone. I couldn't really see who it was as I was quite a distance away from him/her.

I stopped walking and peered at the person. Did that person tripped and fell? No, the position that person is lying in was quite impossible for that. After a few seconds or so, I realized that the person wasn't moving. At all. I swiftly took a few steps closer to 1. Find out who that person was, 2. To see if he/she was playing dead or something.

I was a feet apart from the person on the ground. I looked at the person's features carefully. Then, something clicked in my mind. Sakura. Sakura Mikan. That person was Sakura. No, she wasn't playing dead, she was unconscious!

Okay, I, Li Retsu, isn't that cold by heart. Not at all. I act cold so that blah-blah-blah-blah-blah you know what is my reason already. BUT, I'm not that cold to leave someone who is unconscious lying on the ground right?

…

Righhht?

…

Whatever, I just know that I'm not that cruel.

I carried her bridal style and pondered on where I should head to. 1. Nurse Office No, that won't do, she'll be too distracted with me there. 2. Her room. No way, impossible, it's not right for me to enter her room, so nuh-uh. So, choice 3 is my room. No choices left. I sighed mentally. How the hell did she end up unconscious? I see no injuries that might be the cause of it.

I strode to my room carrying her. She was really light. Everybody's gazes were on us. There were a lot of people as class just ended and they are going back to their room. Oh yeah, my fangirls were there too. They were malicious, I tell you. Malicious. I dealt with them by freezing them.

I stepped into my humongous room and settled her onto the king-sized bed. I sat on a stool near the bed and watched her. I was pondering how she got unconscious but my brain did not co-operate. My eyes flickered to her face. I stared, after a while, I blushed.

"God, no. I shouldn't be here admiring how p-pretty she is. I should be looking for Nanoha and Seiya." He murmured, slapping his forehead. I was obviously loosing it. I'm going crazy. Wait, both are the same meaning. No, that's not the point!

WHY am I going nuts for a newcomer like her? This hasn't happened before. What's going on with me? Gah, forget it….

I left Sakura alone in the room as I proceeded to find Nanoha and Seiya, not forgetting Tsubasa. Mainly, the gang.

My mind was still on her even when I'm walking. I was so deep in my thoughts that I did not notice that someone was calling out to me.

"RETSU KUN! MOU! How many times do I need to repeat before you can hear me?" Nanoha yelled. I turned around to see them, and boy, Nanoha clearly wasn't so happy.

"Hey" I said, not really wanting to provoke Nanoha further. Seiya was looking at me, amused, and Tsubasa was just tagging along, hands behind his head, as anyone could see.

"Mou, you finally responded!" Nanoha puffed her cheeks out.

"Ne, Retsu, what made you to go so deep in thought?" Seiya asked in amusement. "It's really rare."

I blushed and said," Nothing". But the keyword should be 'tried to say' not 'said'. My blush was way too obvious and I stuttered on the word 'nothing'.

"Aha…I see…" Seiya bobbed his head up and down.

I sweat dropped. There's no way to stop what's planning in the brain of a scheming little Seiya in situations like this.

"O-oi, umm, just now, I found Sakura lying on the ground, unconscious."

Seiya stopped chuckling while Nanoha snapped out of her fury and looked into my eyes to trace any signs of a joke.

"Unfortunately, it isn't a joke."

"WHAAT?" All of them, including Tsubasa shouted in my ears.

"OI! DON"T YELL IN MY EAR!" I yelled back at them.

"H-HAI! WE'RE SORRY!" They then apologized, Nanoha and Retsu, profusely to me. I looked at their sorrowful faces and burst out laughing.

Gosh, it was so hard to bottle up my emotions in front of them! I guess I scared them just now. I get really angry when people scream in my ear knowing the fact that mine's super sensitive.

But sometimes, they cheer me up. Like now, for instance.

Nanoha and Seiya stared at me before laughing too. Tsubasa just gave a low chuckle.

We were laughing madly until…..

"HAHAHAHAHA—" Nanoha suddenly stopped laughing. Her eyes widened.

"Now wait a damn minute, why are we LAUGHING WHEN MIKAN CHAN'S UNCONSCIOUS!"

All of us immediately ceased laughing and stared at her.

* * *

**Mikan's pov**

My eyes flickered open. I sat up from the bed grouchily. That was when I realized that this was not my room. How did I know, you asked? Before I stepped into class today, I took a peek at my room. Clever right?

"No wonder I thought that the ceiling looked a little different just now."

I got up from the bed and felt a sharp pain in my head. I winced and fell to my knees.

"Ouch! What the hell? It hurts! My head hurts!" Despite the pain I was feeling, I tried to stood up, using the table desk as a support. It was not too far away from me. I clutched my head with a hand. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a letter on the table.

It Read:

_Sakura, I've found you unconscious in the hallway so I brought you here to rest. You might not know but you've slept for approximately two days. Me, Seiya and Nanoha have gone for a mission that starts at 11. Don't go for the mission, you need to rest. We figured out that you would wake up today, so we wrote this letter._

_-Retsu_

So, it's him that helped me huh…Hmm…Wait…Mission? At 11? Today? I looked at my wrist watch. 10.57p.m. HOLY SHIT! I ONLY HAVE 3 MINUTES LEFT TO PREPARE!

I quickly teleported to my room and put on my mission clothes. I tied up my hair into a messy bun and put on my mask. It covered half of my face and was decorated with orange crystals. I took out a white jewelry box from my desk drawer and opened it. It contained necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings. Those were my Alice controllers. I put on a blue (water) earring, Red (fire) earring, light blue (ice) earring, and a transparent (wind) earring. Then, I placed on my necklace that had a rainbow colored crystal (S.E.C). I will definitely need to use it. Next, I put on a bracelet that had an orange crystal (Nullification). This was a must. It would be ultra dangerous if my nullification gets out of control.

During this time, I didn't notice that my headache had ceased.

Then, I used my tracking Alice to find out where the gang was and teleported there.

The first thing I saw was Sakura Sensei. I turned around, too see Retsu, Seiya, Nanoha, Tsubasa. They stared at me, eyes wide, jaws agape.

"Yo," I greeted casually which seemed to irk them even further.

Then, I thought I saw Retsu's vein pop.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, his tone filled with venom.

"Mission."

"But I told you to stay!"

"You did? When?" I asked, pretending to have not read the letter. I smirked at Retsu's irritated scowl.

Retsu fumed. I smirked again.

"That's crazy Mikan Chan…" Nanoha and Seiya said together.

"So what if I am?" I shot back.

"Chibi….." Tsubasa murmured, shaking his head.

"Guys? I have no clue what cha' talking about but go now. You have a mission." Sakura sensei interrupted.

"Okay," We replied.

…

"What are you guys waiting for?" She asked irritably.

"You haven't told us what we're supposed to do yet," We answered.

Sakura Sensei blinked.

"Eh? You're right! I forgot…"

A huge, fat sweatdrop came tumbling down our heads.

"Eto…Your mission is to retrieve Aoi Hyuuga from the AAO's hideout. Alice of fire."

"Okay," I replied.

I used my teleporting ALice again.

"Name: Aoi Hyuuga

Place: AAO's hideout

Alice: Fire

Take us to her exact location in 10 seconds," I murmured.

This was a different kind of teleporting. It was used to teleport many people at once and it'll help you get to the exact location you want.

"Hold onto me. I'm teleporting us. Hurry," I told them. A digital figure was counting before us.

Everyone grabbed onto me and by the count of 0, we all teleported.

Within 2 seconds, we arrived at the place. Everyone's head was spinning. Well, of course, they're not used to it.

I looked around me. A cage? We're in cage? Then I spotted a girl with raven black hair and crimson eyes crouching in a corner. Her clothes were torn and tattered. Her hair was in a mess. There were scars on her face. I guessed that it was Aoi Hyuuga.

I walked over to her.

"Aoi Hyuuga, are you Aoi Hyuuga?" I asked softly.

She nodded her head and begged, clutching desperately at the hem of my shirt."Please, please don't hurt me! I'll do whatever you want! Don't hurt me! Please!"

"Aoi Hyuuga, We're here to save you," I was quite surprised at what she said. They must have treated her very badly for her to behave like that.

Her eyes widened. "Really? Really? Me?"

"Yes, you." I replied, nodding my head, a smile plastered on my face just to assure her that I wasn't lying.

Suddenly, she crawled closer to me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Please! Take me away from here! Please save me! Please! I don't care where I have to go or what I have to do! Let me out of here!" She pleaded desperately.

Now, I was even more curious on what happened. But I know I shouldn't probe in. I know what she will feel, I felt it before. There's always something you'll never want to say.

"I will," I comforted her.

Then, I heard footsteps coming.

Shit! The guards! A lot of them were coming! I got out of the cage and prepared to fight them.

The gang had seemed to realized it too and they were at they were surrounding Aoi, trying to protect her while forming a plan in their heads. Until then, I must not loose. Not at least until they have formed a plan.

In a second, all the guards surrounded me. There was a huge number of guards. It would take a while to take them down. I couldn't afford Aoi getting hurt. I have to get her out of here! I then teleported her back to Alice Academy in a flash, and made sure that she was with Sakura Sensei.

I was in my fighting position. My gang was still in the cage, forming a plan. They were in a spot that couldn't be seen at the positions of the guards.

I used my ice Alice to knock out some of the guards immediately, not wanting to waste time. Then, I proceeded to use my wind Alice. But before I took another step, my head suddenly started hurting. A lot. The guards then saw a chance and aimed a stream of fire at me. I was crouching down, holding my head in pain. I wanted to block off that fire, but I just couldn't. My head hurts too much! I saw that stream of fire aiming for me. The light blinded my eyes.

My head hurts…Could this be my end? I had no way to survive now… Am I going to die? Like this? Without being able to find her? Not being able to find my mother? My very own mother? This is _the end. I'm really going die, Even if I survived and went to the Hospital, I will have no will to continue living. I haven't even found my mother and friends that I could trust._ Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Nanoha's eyes widened.

"NO!" She screamed.

**Nanoha's pov**

I saw a stream of fire heading straight for her. She was in pain. She was clutching her head. She was going to get…killed… No….No…

"NO!" I shouted.

I grabbed my pearl like device and screamed out, "Ranging heart! SET UP!" A pink light surrounded me as I underwent my transformation. After completing my transformation, I was wearing my barrier jacket. A pink pair of small wings were at the sides of my white boots. I flew to Mikan as fast as I could._ [Round shield]_ Raging heart, my device, spoke mechanically. My device, after transformation, was no longer a pearl. It was now a staff pink and yellow in colour. I raised my hand and a pink round shield with some weird lettering on it appeared. I blocked away some of the fire but I was quite late. The fire had burned me and now I was blocking it, but not all the fire was blocked. There was still some fire that was burning me. The pain was unbearable but I endured it.

"Raging heart!" I yelled. "Cartridge load!"

Raging heart the loaded it cartridge. When a device load it cartridges, my power becomes stronger and more destructive. But it was very dangerous to the device. My shield expanded and was thicker.

Shit, I needed to do something about these guys! The guard was still not stopping his streams of fire. I had a way to defeat all of them here. There was two ways. But I chose the stronger method as I did not want to take any chances.

"Retsu! Seiya! Tsubasa! Cover for me!"

They nodded and took my place in defending Mikan. Retsu made a water barrier, Seiya tried to extinguish the flames with his Alice while Tsubasa stopped the other guards from moving.

I stood in front of Mikan but behind them. I pointed my staff the guards. A magical circle appeared under my feet.

"Raging heart! Countdown!"

_[10…9…8…7…]_ It started to count.

Thousands of small round balls of pink light merged together with each other. The small balls of pink light were still gathering endlessly. Two small circles that looked like ribbons with magical words carved on it were circling my device. (This is all from the anime _Mahou Shoujou lyrical Nanoha_)

"Why? Why did you protect me?" I heard Mikan speak.

_[4…3...]_ Raging heart was still counting.

"Because we're friends." I replied simply.

She was silent then.

_[2…1…0…]_

I took at deep breath.

"STARLIIIGHT…."

The balls of pink light stopped gathering. The huge ball of pink light at the tip of my staff grew larger.

"BREAKER!" I continued. At that moment, Tsubasa, Retsu, Seiya quickly moved out of the way and stood behind me.

A huge pink light blasted out from the huge ball and attacked the guards.

I pressed my feet down with my body weight as hard as I could, or else I would be sent flying due to the force of starlight breaker.

My starlight breaker was my strongest attack that I have. It was able to break through more than 10 walls.

When the light died down, I was out of cartridge. All of the guards were on the floor seriously injured. Apparently, I blasted a hole through the whole AAO. I guess that was about 20+ walls, I think. Either that or more than 20 walls were broken. But I was fine, only that some parts of my clothes were torn and burnt. My ribbon tying up my hair was burnt totally, causing my hair to be let down.

"That was a nice workout," I said, smiling a little.

I held Raging heart to my face and asked it," Raging heart, are you okay?"

I was worried about it, of course. I mean, doing cartridge load was super dangerous and it could break Raging heart into pieces!

_[Don't worry, master]_

It went back into being a pearl and I was out of my transformation.

I turned to face Mikan and found that she was not in pain anymore.

**Mikan's pov**

I was staring at her. Somehow, when I looked at her starlight breaker, my headache ceased. It was so scary, dangerous yet peaceful, soothing at the same time. I wonder why?

"Why did you guys save me from them? I treated you so badly and yet…" I looked at my hands then to them, my voice barely audible.

"Because we're friends!" Nanoha smiled.

I looked at her in the eye then to Retsu and Seiya, then Tsubasa. I stood up and muttered," I'm sorry, and… Thank you… for saving me…" A drop of tear ran down my cheeks. I've finally found them. They were someone I could trust, for sure. That only left my mother.

I saw them smile and walked towards me. They put their hands on my shoulder.

"It was," Retsu, Seiya and Tsubasa started.

"Our pleasure," Nanoha continued.

I stared at them, before giving a small thank you.

"Arigato…Ne, Can I be your friend? Is it alright to?" I asked timidly.

They blinked.

"Eh? Didn't I say twice that that you were already our friend?" Nanoha teased.

I sniffed and wiped away my tears.

"Arigato…I'll show you who I am, I promise."

I then teleported them back to the academy.

* * *

**And that's it! The anime Nanoha is from is really very good! You all should watch it!**

**Please do leave a review! **


	12. party

**Here's chapter 12 of Betrayed! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: No, this is the twelve time I'm saying this. I don't own Gauken Alice.**

**This chapter has been edited**

* * *

"So, you're safe?" Sakura Sensei said holding Aoi's hand.

"Yes."

"Good, I was so shocked though, she suddenly appeared on my lap!" She mused, pointing to Aoi.

"Guess I should have sent a warning too…" Mikan murmured.

"Anyway, good job, you're dismissed. And by the way, Mikan, could you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Take Aoi along with you." Sakura sensei pleaded, inching closer to Mikan.

Mikan took a step back and nodded her head vigorously.

"Don't give me that look…..It's scary…" She thought in her mind.

Aoi's face brightened.

"ONEE CHAN!"

Mikan smiled at her as Aoi ran towards her. Mikan held her hand and when she looked at her surroundings again, Sakura Sensei was gone. She then turned around to find that the gang was still there. They were staring at her. Then, an idea struck her.

"Oh hey!" Mikan suddenly shouted, half scaring the gang to death.

"W-what?"

"Let's have a late party in my dorm! Don't worry, its super big! Let's go!"

Before all of them could even react, Mikan had teleported them to her room.

Mikan faced them and smiled heartily.

"Thank you!"

Everyone, excluding Tsubasa, was stunned. They stared at her with jaws opened like idiots but Nanoha was the first one to step out of it.

"Aw, Mikan Chan, It's okay! We're a gang after all! God's wind!" Nanoha took Mikan's hand in hers and smiled. Retsu was the next to wake up from his daze.

"You should really smile more," he said with a slight smile.

Tsubasa smirked and looked at Retsu.

Seiya just nodded.

Mikan smiled wider.

"Yeah!"

But there was only one thing in their minds.

"_This is the real Mikan. She has opened herself to us and I'm never going to lose that Mikan."_

"Oh yeah, is it all right if we tell each other more about ourselves? I want to know you better," Mikan suggested out of the blue.

They stared other before nodding their heads,

"Okay,"

They then sat down on the couch and grabbed a cushion each.

"Then, I'll start first. When I was young, I lost my parents, I really loved them. We were in the amusement park, having fun, when suddenly, I was forced to go to this Alice academy. Every night, I would look up a the night sky and pray that my parents would bring me back, Until I finally met Nanoha and Seiya," Said Retsu, looking thoughtful.

"You didn't tell us about that before…."Seiya started.

"Well, you've never asked…"Retsu replied.

"Baka Retsu," Nanoha chided under her breath.

"Retsu, you're not alone," Mikan told him sincerely. That sentence alone reminded her of the promise Hotaru made with her. _"Hotaru…"_

Retsu blushed.

"Why are you so red?" Tsubasa teased.

"Ugh…shut up!"

"Ma, as for me, my parents hated me since birth since I brought bad luck and sent me to this school at once when they found out that I had an Alice…At least I didn't have to see their angry faces anymore…"Seiya muttered.

Mikan scowled slightly and Nanoha continued.

"Hmmm…I Was… a normal middle school grader when I met a boy who knew magic. He asked me to help him search for the lost jewel seeds, something that was potentially destructive. Then, I met Fate, another girl who had the same motive as me. Things then got really chaotic and I had to leave my family. I didn't have a choice. When all of this was over, I transferred here."

"Is it a trend to have saddening past? What is happening to the world? They got the wrong person to suffer!" Mikan commented, frowning.

"I lost my parents since birth and I transferred to Japan Alice academy a few years later. Then, just when I though I had friends that I could trust, they betrayed me." Mikan kept it short, not wanting to go into detail.

"Mikan..."

Mikan blinked in surprise and tried to laugh, vigorously wiping away the tears welling up in her eyes. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cry…"

Everyone was silent. They didn't speak a word except for Tsubasa.

"Brat, stop crying. Don't dwell too much on the past. You have us! We're here with you! Chibi, they are not worth dwelling on. WE should come first! Right?" He winked. "Lets just forget about them! We're here to have fun!"

Mikan stopped crying and looked at him.

"Tsubasa Sempai…"

Tsubasa then used his hands to cup mikan's face. He used his thumbs and wiped away her tears.

"Mikan, You can count on us!" He said gently. Mikan eyes widened and she nodded gratefully. She then gave him a big hug. Retsu twitched.

"Hmmm…Ne minna, can we go to central town tomorrow?" Seiya interrupted, sensing danger from his best friend.

"Eh? There's a central town here too?" Mikan questioned, now completely fine, breaking her hug with Tsubasa.

Retsu suddenly felt a rush of relief and smacked himself in his mind.

"Yeah, there's one, It's the same as the one in Japan." Retsu took the inciative to answer.

"You mean there's Howalon?"

"If you meant that ultra-delicious candy, then yes!" Nanoha suddenly butted in and squealed.

Mikan eyes sparkled for the first time that day.

"YAY!HA-LE-LU-JAH! PRAISE THE LORD! I'm GONNA BUY 15 BOXES!" Mikan gushed in delight.

"Then, I'll buy 20," Nanoha declared.

"25!" Mikan challenged, not wanting to lose.

"30!"

"50!"

"I cant win that…"

"Still a Howalon lover as ususal huh? Even after so many yers of not seeing you, you actually haven't changed…" Tsubasa teased.

Mikan pouted. "I can't help it, it's so pleasant to the toungue! I fell in love with it in first sight!"

"You mean, first _taste,_" All of them corrected her.

"Isn't it the same?" She frowned.

All of them burst into laughter.

"Now, let's really party!" Mikan yelled out.

"What should we do? Watch movies?" Nanoha asked.

"Naw, that's too girly, how 'bout video games?"

"Sounds fine to me, "

"I'm fine with it," Tsubasa agreed.

"Alright, let's play a racing game!"

"Whatever…." Retsu sighed, feeling bored.

"Eh? Retsu, you want to play the game, 'whatever'? I've never heard of that game before! Can you teach me how to play it?" Mikan asked in curiosity.

"The game is to bang you head against the wall until it bleeds. Whoever bleeds the most in an hour wins. "He half joked, his eyes showing to tint of amusement.

"Oh, I see! So, that's what it is abou—HEY DON'T LIE TO ME!"

"You're quite slow, eh, Mikan?"

"So what if I am?" Mikan shot stubbornly, not wanting to give in.

"Your brain has a loss of cells!" Retsu countered, chuckling in his mind.

"RETSU!" Mikan fumed.

"HOLD IT! CAN WE START THE GAME NOW?" Tsubasa interrupted their mini fight.

"Ah, you're right, I forgot, the game…."

All of them sweatdropped as Mikan inseted the game into the play station and handed them a contoller each.

"It's actually a good ides if you had read the instructions first…" Mikan commented, right before the race started.

"Eh?"

Tsubasa smirked, knowing what was up in Mikan's sleeves.

_3…._

_2…._

_1…_

_**GO!**_

Mikan and Tsubasa's cars speeded off but the rest went reversing at full speed.

"HUH! WHY AM I REVERSING!" All of them yelled in shock. They tried to go straight but instead, the car spinned in circled and fell of a cliff which they apparently didn't notice.

"AHHHHHHHH I'M FALLING! MIIIIKAAAN!" All of them yelled.

"I TOLD YOU TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST!"

"YOU TOLD US THAT ONLY WHEN THE RACE WAS ABOUT TO START!"

" BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY COMMON SENSE!"

"MIIKKAAANN!" They growled and to try and chase her. Mikan immediately got up and ran out of her dorm and started going around the school with the gang chasing after her, furious. Tsubasa was the only one left in her dorm, still playing the game.

"I'm going to be the winner, nobody shall beat me!"

* * *

**And that's it! Do leave a review and I'll give you a kiss! ;)**


	13. Thei running, and the gang

**Yuki: Sorry for the wait!!! Chapter 13 has come!!!**

**Mikan: Yosh! Let's get it started!**

* * *

_Recap:_

"_MIIKKAAANN!!!" They growled and to try and chase her. Mikan immediately got up and ran out of her dorm and started going around the school with the gang chasing after her, furious. Tsubasa was the only one left in her dorm, still playing the game._

"_I'm going to be the winner, nobody shall beat me!!!"_

* * *

Mikan and the gang ended up running countless of laps around the school.

"Damm! Mikan, slow down!" Retsu yelled.

Mikan was in the lead, with Retsu paces behind. Nanoha was behind Retsu, whining.

"Mikan Chan I can't catch up!!!"

Seiya was goofily running at the same pace as Nanoha. All of them were reaching their limits. Any longer and they might collapse. But for Mikan, she wasn't even pushing herself. Better yet, She wasn't even panting nor sweating! Her incredibly fast sprinting was just slow jogging to her. After all, this was the least of Persona's expectations of her. Still. She really was impressed with the gang for being able to keep with her pace. No one, except for the back cat and Persona has ever run along with her on the same track for even 10 seconds. But the gang had been running for an hour or so. Heck, they might even be on the same level as the black cat.

Impressive.

"Hey! Have you reached your limit yet?" Mikan asked, her voice held no tint for a need of air.

"A-Almost! Mikan!! Stop running and let us catch you!!!"

"Hmm, so, they're reaching their limits…Really, they're awesome. Without that constant whining and yelling, they might be able to hold on for another hour. Heh," Mikan thought and smirked. "Lets see how much more we can push,"

"HEY! I'm going to sprint now!! Try to follow Okay???" Mikan yelled.

" NANI? YOU WEREN'T SPRINTING FROM THE BEGINNING?!" They yelled in shock and wonder. "FOLLOWING YOU IS GOING TO BE IMPOSSIBLE!!"

Mikan thought about it and decided that she would not sprint, just run.

" Here we….GO!!!" Mikan ran off, leaving a trial of dust behind.

"Ah…GRRRRR WE WONT LOSE!!!! MIKAN!!!" And all of them sprinted as fast as possible, ignoring the hard thumping of their heart against their chest, desperately calling for them to stop.

Mikan's running speed was like Sonic the hedgehog, but the only difference is that Mikan was able to go faster, but it would take a lot of her physical energy. To her, to need an alice to run faster was not in her dictionary.

She looked back and smiled to herself when she saw that the gang was determined to stay on the same track as her.

"Determination is the key," she commented silently, smiling widely to the gang.

"Not bad!!"

"Of course!! WE have to at least try and catch up to you. We're in a gang after all," Retsu yelled between pants.

"That's a wise decision, Retsu,"

All of them shifted their attention to the speaker, but still running.

"Sakura Sensei, what are you doing here?" Seiya asked.

" Oh., I was shopping!" She started to run beside Mikan.

Mikan looked at her wrist watch. It said, 3 a.m.

"At this hour!?" She questioned, raising her eyebrows.

"Yea!"

"Sou,"

At that moment, Mikan started to sprint as Sakura Sensei was keeping up to her pace. Seeing Mikan sprint, she did the same. And there they go, smirking at each other and sprinting faster and faster. In a split second, they were out of the gang's sight even if they tried to keep up. They eventually stopped running and stared at the track that Mikan and Sakura Sensei ran on.

"Are they nuts!? How in the heavenly world can one run so fast?" Retsu growled, deeply irritated. He was panting heavily.

"She wasn't sprinting yet, she was just going easy on us…" Nanoha was sweating as she took in big gulps of fresh air.

"Gah……" Seiya's eyes were spinning as he collapsed onto the ground.

Then, a gush of wind flew past them.

"That…was them, right?" Retsu asked, bewildered.

"Its not even 3 minutes and they were running for more than 10km…" Nanoha breathed.

_Whoosh_

"That wasn't even a minute!! How are they able to run 10km in a minute!!!!"

_Whoosh_

"…"

"…'

_Whoosh_

Their jaws dropped. It wasn't even half a minute, yet….

"Ya know what? I'm gonna stop their too-fast run." Seiya declared, suddenly waking up from his faint.

"How?" Nanoha asked. She found it quite impossible to stop them.

"With my alice, what else?"

"Bu-"

"-They won't notice! They're too busy running!"

He used his wind alice and made a wall in front of them. Since it was made out of wind, it wasn't visible to the eye.

"I don't think it's going to work…"Nanoha murmured.

Retsu eyed the invisible barrier.

"Seiya, strengthen the barrier….it's going to break if Mikan or Sakura Sensei runs into it…"

"You're right,"

Seiya strengthened his barrier and quickly ran to the side, followed by Retsu and Nanoha.

_Whoosh_

_Screech_

_Boom_

_Bang_

_BAM_

"Itai….. What the hell?" Sakura Sensei growled as she rubbed her sore head. She had collided her head with the barrier, flew upwards and landed on the ground.

As for Mikan, she was perfectly fine. But she was on the other side of the barrier.

"Huh? Mikan how did you..?" Seiya asked his eyes wide.

"I guess you forgot that I had the nullification alice…"

"Right," Retsu rolled his eyes.

The barrier now had a dent in it.

"Oh dear, I'm glad I ain't the barrier…" Nanoha said.

"Never gonna happen Nanoha,"

"Sakura Sensei, are you okay?" Mikan asked.

"Yep, just that my head's is spinning terribly."

"That wasn't an expected prank…An invisible barrier…That's a good one…"

"I have to agree…Good job guys, you've managed to partially smash my head."

"Thanks for the praise…"Retsu murmured.

"Right, its 3.30 a.m. don't you think you guys should be in bed? Aren't you going out tomorrow? You should go out and shop often, you know!" Sakura Sensei said, pointing her finger to her chin.

"Aw crap! I forgot we're going to central town tomorrow!" Mikan whined.

"Let's just not go…" Retsu said.

"NO" Mikan and Nanoha yelled.

"I'm NOT GOING TO MISS A CHANCE TO EAT HOWALON!!!!!"

"Mikan, how 'bout we all go in the late afternoon? We can all sleep in that way…"

"Right, let's meet at 3.00p.m outside our dorms then."

"Wow, her mood changes fast," they thought.

"Night guys, I'm teleporting all of us…"

Mikan teleported Retsu to his room, then Seiya, then Nanoha, then she healed Sakura Sensei spinning head.

She teleported herself into her room and flopped down onto her bed.

"Seems like Tsubasa went off first…. I guess he was tired…Ah…I'm exhausted…."

She dozed off as soon as she closed her eyes.

* * *

**The next day**

Blue Rays filled Mikan's room as the bright light shone directly on her face. The birds were twittering noisily and the wind blew gently.

It was 1p.m in the afternoon. Mikan was currently lying on her bed, wide awake.

"These damm birds are making too much noise…"

She got up from her bed reluctantly and dragged herself to do her morning necessities.

After that, she walked to her room and sat down in front of her dressing table. She looked into the mirror. No eye bags. Safe. Wrinkles? No. phew.

She grabbed her comb and brushed it through her hair. While brushing her hair, she decided that she would just tie a ponytail today. She tied it up with a white ribbon.

"Done!"

It was now 1.30.

"eh? I haven't wore my clothes yet!!!" She was actually in her attire that she had been in yesterday, her mission clothes. It was all crumpled. She still had her alice devices on too! Geez, what a forgetful girl.

She rummaged her wardrobe for clothes that would suit her style for today. And, what was her style? Today, happy, bubbly. Cheerful, just like the old Mikan. But, This Mikan is not that innocent. That is the only difference.

She wore a hot pink blouse and a frilly black skirt.

"That's quite okay now…"

She took out her water, fire, earth alice devices but left her nullification, SEC, and her ice alice on.

She put on her strawberry flavored lip gloss and smiled.

"Howalon, here I come!"

2.30 in the afternoon.

"I still have time…..Ah, I forgotten to do my morning /afternoon training…Let's make it short…"

She did 80 sit ups and 93 one hand push ups. She did a split and a back bend. She then created a plant with her earth alice. A small rose plant.

With her water alice, she concentrated it into a small thin line of water, coming out from her finger, She made the pressure very high, and it created a dent in her room.

"Alrighty, done! It's 2.55, just nice!"

She walked out of her room and stood in the hallway, her mood suddenly changing. She was still in her cheerful mood, but whenever she was out, she had to be on guard.

She waited outside her dorm, and within a minute, all of them came out from their rooms.(Their dorms are on the same level)

Mikan smiled a little and said," Sa, let's go!"

They walked out of the school and to the bus stop, chatting along the way.

"Oi, you aren't as cheerful as you were yesterday…Did anything happen?" Retsu commented, raising his eyebrows.

"Ah! No, no, its just that we were not in the open yesterday, so I let my guard down. Don't worry, I'm fine!"

"Sou,"

"Ah, mou! Why is the bus taking so long?! I'm fed up with waiting!" Nanoha complained, puffing her cheeks.

"We only waited for 5 minutes, Nanoha," Seiya said, sweat dropping.

"And don't puff your cheeks out, it make you look like a puffer fish," Restu joked.

"Hmmph! Sorry for looking like a puffer fish!"

"Retsu, you shouldn't say that," Seiya said.

"One day, the girls in America will each give you a big slap," Tsubasa laughed.

"And a kick!" Mikan added.

"And off you go to Japan!!!" Nanoha said.

Mikan flinched when she heard 'Japan'. The place that held her miseries. Mikan sighed. But before any of them could notice, she covered it up.

"Hey, the bus has come, let's go!"

"AHHH!!!Finally!" Nanoha smiled.

**-Meanwhile in Japan-**

In those few days in which Mikan was gone, the class really changed. Especially Natsume, Hotaru, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, and koko.

There was now a new transfer student in the class. Her name is Luna. A pretty blonde with curves at the right places, her face full of makeup.

In those few days, she had been very close to some of them. But, all of them were not the same any longer.

Hotaru suddenly stopped inventing tools to threaten or blackmail. She usual ice cold personality become more complex, twisted, and cold. Her eyes held that emotion of loss, and at all times, coldness. She stopped doing sales business altogether and spends her time together with her group of people, mainly Natusme, Ruka, Nonoko, Anna, Yuu, Koko and sometimes Luna. She never really trusted Luna as much as she does to her gang but she felt that Luna somehow resembled Mikan, and that was the only reason she allowed Luna to talk to her.

Natsume had the wild fire back in his eyes. He started to ditch classes and pick fights frequently. He goes for missions even more than he did last time, mainly of his own free will. He also allowed Luna to sit in Mikan's place as he had begun to like her. Why? Because right now, it seemed that she was the only person that would stand by him no matter what happened. Natsume had also become a playboy, randomly making out with other girls for no specific reason. His aura now is totally different, no one dared to approach him unless he approached them first.

Anna and Nonoko got very down; they no longer talk in sequence or make stuff with their alices. All of the stuff they create seems to remind them of Mikan. Mikan. Mikan. Always Mikan. They totally trusted Luna. It was because luna looked like Mikan and sometimes, she had that personality Mikan had.

Ruka now only talked to Hotaru and Natsume, occasionally the others. Anyone could tell that he was greatly affected from the disappearance of Mikan, his first crush. He no longer had a bunny, his eyes were dark, and his head was always held low. A dark aura seemed to follow him no matter where he went. His animals no longer cater to him.

Koko no longer had a smile attached to his face. He stopped reading minds altogether, using the alice stone Mikan once gave him. He stopped interacting and deeply dislikes Luna. He finds that Luna might have some motives.

* * *

**Yuki:I know, inappropriate place to stop…Sigh..But I really don't know how to stop it soon if I don't end here…**

**Mikan: Forgive her, and review please!**


	14. Central town, wait, what about Aoi?

**Yuki: Gosh, my mom's soooo demanding! She doesn't allow me to use the computer for so long!! BUT! She's out for work now. Heehee. Yes, I'm using the computer behind her back.**

**Mikan:Such a bad bad bad girl…*shakes head***

**Yuki: I don't want to hear that from you… STILL, I'm doing this for all the readers! Is that considered bad? HA!**

**Hotaru: It's still not good you dimwit. *Blast yuki off with the baka gun***

**Hotaru: I'll be the narrator for today. Please do not mind the 'Hotaru' way of narrating. Still, since Yuki has always forgotten to say this, I'll say it for her.**

**Diaclamer: WE DO NOT OWN GAUKEN ALICE OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS!!! Except for Retsu and Seiya…**

_Recap:_

"_Hey, the bus has come, let's go!"_

"_AHHH!!!Finally!" Nanoha smiled._

_**-Meanwhile in Japan-**_

_In those few days in which Mikan was gone, the class really changed. Especially Natsume, Hotaru, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, and koko._

_There was now a new transfer student in the class. Her name is Luna. A pretty blonde with curves at the right places, her face full of makeup._

_In those few days, she had been very close to some of them. But, all of them were not the same any longer._

_Hotaru suddenly stopped inventing tools to threaten or blackmail. She usual ice cold personality become more complex, twisted, and cold. Her eyes held that emotion of loss, and at all times, coldness. She stopped doing sales business altogether and spends her time together with her group of people, mainly Natusme, Ruka, Nonoko, Anna, Yuu, Koko and sometimes Luna. She never really trusted Luna as much as she does to her gang but she felt that Luna somehow resembled Mikan, and that was the only reason she allowed Luna to talk to her._

_Natsume had the wild fire back in his eyes. He started to ditch classes and pick fights frequently. He goes for missions even more than he did last time, mainly of his own free will. He also allowed Luna to sit in Mikan's place as he had begun to like her. Why? Because right now, it seemed that she was the only person that would stand by him no matter what happened. Natsume had also become a playboy, randomly making out with other girls for no specific reason. His aura now is totally different, no one dared to approach him unless he approached them first._

_Anna and Nonoko got very down; they no longer talk in sequence or make stuff with their alices. All of the stuff they create seems to remind them of Mikan. Mikan. Mikan. Always Mikan. They totally trusted Luna. It was because luna looked like Mikan and sometimes, she had that personality Mikan had. _

_Ruka now only talked to Hotaru and Natsume, occasionally the others. Anyone could tell that he was greatly affected from the disappearance of Mikan, his first crush. He no longer had a bunny, his eyes were dark, and his head was always held low. A dark aura seemed to follow him no matter where he went. His animals no longer cater to him. _

_Koko no longer had a smile attached to his face. He stopped reading minds altogether, using the alice stone Mikan once gave him. He stopped interacting and deeply dislikes Luna. He finds that Luna might have some motives._

**THE HOTARU NARRATING BEGINS NOW**

The idiot & friends got onto the bus. The chatted. Retsu talked little. They didn't talked about money. They got down the bus. The talked even more. The idiot triped. She scraped her kn-

**HOLD ONE DAMM MINUTE HOTARU. WE ARE NOT DOING A SUMMARY!!! PLEASE DO NOT DESTROY MY STORY!!!! (Yuki)**

**THE 'HOTARU' NARRATING ENDS HERE**

Right, back to normal. So,…

Mikan, Retsu and Seiya and Tsubasa quickly got on the bus. The bus was very… spacious. No one else except for them was on the bus.

"Hmm, that's weird, no one's one the bus…" Mikan commented as she took a seat.

"Only you think like that…" Retsu told her, and sat beside her. Nanoha and Seiya sat in front of them while Tsubasa sat beside them.

"Hmmph, how do you know that? Are you an esper or what? "

"I'm smart. You're dumb."

"Rubbish." Mikan stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ah Chibi, your hair sucks. You seem a little too innocent…" Tsubasa interrupted, changing the conversation.

"Really? Wasn't high ponytail supposed to give that strong impression to others?" Mikan asked, forgetting about the whole incident.

"On others, yes. On you, no."

"Hmph. It doesn't matter."

Tsubasa chuckled. "Come over here little one," he said, pointing to his lap. "I'll fix your hair."

Mikan had an urge to burst out laughing. She knew that Tsubasa sempai just liked to play with her hair. She knew that long long ago, when she first learnt how to use the mind reading Alice. Still, she kept silent, and due to her superb experience in putting a emotionless mask during missions, no one could tell that Mikan was laughing like a maniac silently.

Mikan climbed onto Tsubasa's lap, and sat down. Of course, she gave him a hard pinch on his lap as a topping.

"OW!! MIKAN! GAKI!!** (brat)**"

"Hehe.. That was a special service. Be thankful." She said while undoing her ponytail. Pulling the end of the white ribbon, she gingerly slid it out, letting her smooth, hazel, long hair fall to her shoulders.

"Angel," was what came to everyone's mind. Mikan was so beautiful with her hair down.

Mikan saw their expressions and chuckled. She had heard their thoughts.

"A fallen one. A fallen angel would suit me more." Mikan laughed silently, her slivery voice matched the description of an angel.

"A fallen angel? Mikan? More like an angel descended from the gates of heaven." Retsu thought as he caught a scent of strawberries coming from Mikan's hair. "Strawberries…"

"Retsu, do you need an eye operation?I'll gladly do it for you. For a price of 1 million yen, that is." Mikan joked in a light voice when she caught Retsu staring at her.

Retsu, however, said, "I already had an eye operation when I was young. No need for another one."

"Really? You don't seem that type who would use the internet for 12 hours straight though…" Tsubasa commented, smoothing out Mikan's hair.

"Your mouth is a load of crap, you know.."

"No I don't."

"They seem to be very energetic today...' Nanoha said.

"Right you are… Too energetic I might add.:" Seiya replied.

"Retsu, yo—ITAI!!!!!! TSUBASA!!!!" Mikan yelled. Tsubasa had gripped on her hair and pulled it far too hard.

"That was a fluke. Sorry."

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!!!"

"No I didn't"

"YES YOU FUCKING DID!" Mikan was beyond pissed. NO ONE messes with her hair. Tsubasa was going to get it.

"ALRIGHT I DID IT TO MAKE YOU SHUDDAP!!! WE'RE ALREADY AT OUR STOP AND THE DRIVER'S GLARING AT US SO I SAY WE SHOULD GET OFF THE BUS NOW!" Tsubasa yelled, not wanting to feel her wrath.

"What? We've reached? That's fast…" Mikan said, her beyond pissed mood slipping out of her mind.

" Oi, weren't you styling her hair?"

"I did, and I've finished."

"Sou? Ah! Mikan! You should see how you look right now! You're gorgeous!!!" Nanoha squealed.

"Yea, I never knew that you can style, Tsubasa," Seiya teased.

Retsu, blushing slightly, managed to mummer a 'I guess you're pretty' and earned a thanks from Mikan.

Mikan hair was tied into a side ponytail, with her bangs let down. It looked very good on her, especially since it matched the outfit she wore.

"Ya know, I STILL think that we should get outta here asap. The driver has finally gone mad…" Tsubasa pointed to the driver who now was holding a hammer, ready to whack them out of the bus. And keep the bus fare.

"YOU BRATS LEAVE THIS BUS RIGHT NOW AND DROP YOUR FARE!!! YOU ARE GETTING ON MY NERVES!! I HAVE WAITED FOR 15 MINUTES FOR YOU TO GET OUT OF THE BUS!! I WOULD BUY A VOODOO DOLL AFTER THIS IN CASE I SEE YOU AGAIN!!! GET OUUUUTTTTT!!!!!" The driver yelled, as his saliva specks flew everywhere.

…….

"Raging heart, barrier."

Seiya made a wind barrier and Tsubasa made a shadow barrier by using the huge shadow of the driver,

Retsu burned all of the saliva that neared him while Mikan just did her way.

"Training number two, water against water." Mikan smirked. Forming water droplets around her, her shot it at the saliva that aimed at her. With Mikan's sharp eyes, she was able to make the droplets the exact same size as the saliva. Even those that couldn't be seem by Retsu could be seen by Mikan.

So, why were they fighting so desperately against the saliva? One reason, Saliva's DANGEROUS. It kills. Germs. Disease. It's a weapon. So, the gang treated it like it was a battle.

Mikan, then sprayed water at him at a very high pressure. She was laughing. "Don't spit on us next time, Mr bus driver!"

"Mikan, was there a need to attack him?" Tsubasa asked, looking at the bus driver screaming out In pain.

"Yes, always exterminate the source of evil!"

"You're the evil one…" Everyone muttered.

"SAY WHAT!?"

"Nothing"

"Good. Just keep your mouth shut."

"Yes ma'am…"

Mikan stopped attacking the driver and ran out of the bus, seemingly to have forgotten about attacking him.

" Oi! Let's see who'll reach the ice cream van first! I run as slow as possible so do your best!!"

"Ah! NO FAIR YOU RAN OUT FIRST!!!!!" Nanoha yelled as she chased after Mikan.

"Wait for me!!! " Seiya ran after them, grinning like a mad idiot. Ice cream was his favorite.

"No choice but to follow them, huh…" Tsubasa said.

"Guess we're the only ones that act our age…" Retsu relied, shrugging.

"Nope, you're acting too old."

"You wanna die? Huh?" Retsu threatened, his vein popping.

Tsubasa, taking the cue, ran out as fast as he could to the direction of the ice cream van. Retsu just screamed at him and chased him.

While Mikan was running, she as pondering on which flavor she should buy.

"Vanilla or chocolate? Maybe strawberry? Hmm… What about cookies and cream? Wait, mango is nice too… Hmm… " Mikan pondered as she jogged to the van.

Nanoha was already sprinting to the van, a few centimeters in front of Mikan. Mikan was absent minded and did not notice Nanoha overtake her.

"I'm taking peach flavour!!!!!! Make the scoop extra large!!!!!" Nanoha told the seller, using her hands to go a big round over her head to indicate the size of the scoop.

"That's impossible, miss…"

"JUST DO IT!!"

"H-HAI!!!"

The seller took out a huge spoon and scooped out the ice cream, placed it on the cone and passed it to Nanoha. But when he saw Nanoha's expression, he quickly took it back and added another 4 scoops to the ice cream. Shivering, he said, "six dollars, miss, for that e-extra large ice cream…."

"Six dollars? Shouldn't it be lesser, sir?"

His pace grew pale and he started to tremble.

"Sir?"

"Nanoha, stop teasing him. That poor guy is scared out of his wits!" Mikan said, shaking her head, walking towards the van.

"Hai… Sorry," pouting, Nanoha apologized to the seller.

He heaved a sigh of relief and thanked Mikan.

"Thank you, miss! What do you want? I'll give you a free ice cream if you buy one!"

Mikan eyes brightened. 'Buy one get one free… Nice" She thought.

"A CHOCOLATE AND A VANILLA ICE CREAM PLEASE!! MAKE IT EXTRA HUGE!!!!" Mikan said, using her hands to indicate the size of the ice cream, like what Nanoha had done.

"M-Miss!!! T-That!!"

"Hmm? What did you say?" Mikan asked, daring him to repeat it again.

"Nothing!!!" The seller cried inwardly. Life was unfair. Totally.

Seeing that the seller was moving at a snail's pace, Mikan got fed up and yelled, "JUST HAND THAT DAMMED CONE OVER AND I'LL DO THE REST BY MYSELF!!! DON'T FORGET YOUR DEAL TOO!"

The driver whimpered and handed Mikan two cones. Mikan created a metal scoop and scooped out the ice cream.

XxxxX

"Ah! This is heaven!!" Mikan gushed, holding both ice creams in both hands.

"I agree." Nanoha nodded, gobbling down a whole scoop of ice cream.

"Still,mango flavour is the best!" Seiya hummed, walking beside Nanoha.

"No, It's peach!"

"It's mango!"

"It's vanilla!" Mikan interrupted.

"Peach!" " Mango!!"

"VANILLA!!"

"Strawberries…" Retsu joined in.

"Cookies and cream!" Tsubasa took a bite of his ice cream.

"OH MY GOD!! RETSU YOU LIKED STRAWBERRIES?! You don't seem like it…" Mikan yelled.

"What's wrong with liking strawberries?"

"Well, nothing really.. Just a big shock…"

"Ah, sou da!! How's Aoi? Is she sleeping right now, in your room?" Tsubasa asked.

"Aoi? Who's Aoi—HOLY!!! I HAVEN'T SEEN HER THIS MORNING IN MY ROOM!!! BULL SHIT!!!!!" Mikan yelled in panic. "NANOHA, LET'S GET DOWN TO BUISNESS!! HELP ME BUT 15 LARGE BOXES OF HOWALON WHILE I SEARCH FOR AOI!!! SAYORANA!!!!" With that. Mikan dashed off to find Aoi.

"Wait…She's….Missing?! NO WAY!!!" Retsu, Seiya, and Tsubasa eyes widened in horror. Only Nanoha replied, not fully understanding the situation, "Yeah, sure! Good luck!"

Mikan raced to her room within seconds to check if Aoi were there. To her dismay, Aoi was nowhere to be found.

"Now what? What am I going to do?"

**Yuki: Finished! I managed to finish this within a day!! Hooray!**

**Hotaru: *veins pop* Yuki_san, may I ask why did you use my baka gun to blast me away just now? HUH?!**

**Yuki: Uh oh…**

**Mikan: Ooh Hotaru's using a polite tone.. Oh my god, she's really angry… Run for it Yuki…**

**Yuki: Roger that! *sprints off***


	15. Things are going way too fast!

**Yuki: Here's um chapter….15? I sorta lost count…**

**Mikan: You're such a forgetfull girl…**

**Yuki: Yeah, like you can remember…**

**Mikan: Sure, I can! I mean of course I can! It's already chapter 14! Not 15!**

**Yuki: Yeah, whatever, like I care. You're totally spoiling my mood, Mikan.**

**Mikan: I didn't do anything!**

**Yuki: Yes, you did. Don't piss me off when my exam just ended an hour ago…*glares***

**Mikan: *shivers* Y-yes ma'am!**

**Yuki: *changes mood* Oh yeah! This chapter might not be to your liking! Um, It might be suddenly going very fast, so please tell me in your review so that I can not make the mistakes Imade in this chapter in the future!**

_Recap:_

"_Wait…She's….Missing? NO WAY!" Retsu, Seiya, and Tsubasa eyes widened in horror. Only Nanoha replied, not fully understanding the situation, "Yeah, sure! Good luck!"_

_Mikan raced to her room within seconds to check if Aoi were there. To her dismay, Aoi was nowhere to be found._

"_Now what? What am I going to do?"_

_End of recap_

Panting, Mikan leaned against a tree. She was looking for Aoi. Hell, she had looked EVERYWHERE for her yet Aoi still could not be found. You might be wondering why Mikan didn't use her alice to search for Aoi. Well, the main reason was she did not thought of it. Yeah, I know, plain stupid. That's what she is.

" I'm so gonna be fried…" Sakura sensei was so gonna kill her for loosing Aoi. Mikan gulped. Sure, Mikan was strong, but, who knows? Sakura Sensei might be stronger. And Mikan didn't want to take any risk in trying to see who was stronger.

"How the hell am I supposed to find her? This school is so bloody big! Ugh" Mikan growled, pissed off.

Sakura Sensei flashed into her mind and she almost immediately started running to search for Aoi. But, instead, Mikan sat down and started to think.

"Where are the places small girls _love_ to go? Amusement park? Nah, there isn't any here. But hey, wait a minute…" Mikan started murmuring. "Aoi was being held _captive_ at the *Inserts snarl* AAO right? So Aoi wouldn't be running around right? *Inserts confused voice* I mean, She wouldn't get over it that quickly, judging that they treated her very badly. So, she'll have a fear of people right? So why the hell…. Unless she had to do something important…"

Mikan scratched her head in frustration. "Now, what is this important thing that she had to do?"

…

…

"Forget It., This isn't helping me at all…" Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. "Why in the holy world did I not think of this before? I'm just stupid…"

Randomly pointing to a person that passed by her, She hissed, "You! Have you seen a small little girl with black hair and red eyes? She freaks out when she see people, almost as if you're gonna torture her or something," Mikan eyed that person, going into her cold mode.

Trembling, he answered, "Y-yes…"

"Then tell me. **Where. Is. That. Brat?**" Mikan asked, her voice icy cold. Aoi had caused her a lot of trouble. When she see Aoi later, she would give her an earful.

"Outside The corridor of Billy Sensei class!" He whimpered and scuttled away.

"…Huh? Outside his class? Why?" Mikan asked herself, proceeding to Narumi's Sensei class, running as fast as she could.

"Oh my God, please stay where you are, Aoi. I'm NOT gonna waste another minute of my time looking for you again. I spent half the whole day looking for you!"

"BILLY! WHERE IS AOI!" Mikan yelled as she slammed open the classroom door, hearing absolutely no sound but a soft femine shriek from the corner of the classroom.

Mikan eyes landed on Aoi who was crouching in fear, her back facing the front of the classroom.

"O-over there…" Billy shakily replied, pointing to Aoi.

Nodding her head, Mikan walked over to Aoi. Although deep in her heart, she was still very pissed with Aoi, but upon seeing her like this, made her heart soften. After all, Aoi had gone through a lot.

Crouching, Mikan placed her hand on her shoulder. She felt Aoi tense. "Aoi,"

"O-onee san?" Aoi shakily stuttered as she turned to face Mikan.

Mikan looked at Aoi. Aoi's hair was in a total mess and her face was stained with tears. Other than that, there were no cuts or bruises. Mikan sighed in relief.

"Yes, Aoi."

Aoi hugged Mikan tightly, crying into her chest. She was so scared, so alone.

"Onee-chan…I…was so scared!" Aoi sobbed endlessly, her voice muffled.

Mikan patted Aoi on her back soothingly. "Hai, I'm here now, don't worry," Truthfully, Mikan actually pitied the child. At such a young age, to have been treated like a piece of garbage…Even her annoyance had completely vanished.

"I was trying to l-look for my brother-but, I couldn't find him, and the people here are very scary!"

"Huh…Her brother,hmm, such an irresponsible ass. His sister had been captured by the AAO yet he does nothing about it? What a useless piece of shit," Mikan thought. "So, who's he?"

"Hy-Hyuuga Natsume,"

Mikan eyes widened. This was impossible.

"Don't fuck with me," Mikan murmured. Fate was cruel.

"This sucks," Mikan murmured, popping the Howalons into her mouth.

"Come on, Mikan Chan, it's not that bad, isn't it?" Nanoha said, trying to cheer Mikan up. Mikan had been in a really bad mood today.

"It's bad, Nanoha. Really bad. What am I supposed to tell Aoi, huh? That her brother was a motherfucker who ditched me? The innocent me? Huh? And I can bet Sakura Sensei will send me back to Japan with Aoi to The alice academy there. This is hell, literally."

"Ahaha…" Nanoha laughed, sweatdropping. "I guess that Natsume guy is very bad… Hm, I ought to give him a spanking since he made Mikan suffer." She thought.

"Hm, the howalon today tastes weird…"

"It's just you, Mikan Chan,"

"Sou,"

There was complete silence. A cold, eerie silence that made Nanoha shudder.

They were at a park in Central town, enjoying the scenery and all, until Nanoha asked about Aoi and Mikan got depressed and pissed.

"So, Nanoha, Let' me ask you something. Did you…Eh? Huh?" Mikan stopped suddenly. Her head was swirling around and her sight was getting fainter. Mikan could only hear Nanoha's panicked voice that seemed so small. "Oi! You okay? Mikan Chan!" Mikan felt herself falling as she slowly seeped deeper into unconsciousness.

XxxxxX

**Mikan's pov**

"Mikan, are you okay?" Tsubasa asked worriedly. I had fainted.

"Ugh…No, my head hurts like hell, as usual…" I clutched my head in pain.

It had been four years already, since I transferred to America's Alice Academy. Ever since then, I had been collapsing randomly and waking up a few days later with either a slight or terrible headache. I also found out that my alice was dangerous, and I would die is I used too much of my alice in a day.

"Mikan Chan…" Nanoha murmured, looking at me, worrying..

"I'm fine Nanoha, this happens often and I'm used to it…" I sighed.

"But…Mikan Chan, are you sure you're okay? You've been knocked out for weeks!"

"That long?"

"Yea," Retsu replied.

Retsu was standing by the door. I was in a room, his room to be exact. Looking at me in the eye, he turned around and walked off.

I chuckled. Better go apologize to him for making him worry later.

"Mou, so rude of Retsu! Ah! Mikan, The principle's looking for you," Seiya said cheerfully, knowing that I would only be troubled if they worried about me. I thanked him silently.

"Okay, I'll go see him," kicking off the bed sheets, I quickly wore my uniform.

"Jan ne, " I then teleported to the principle's office.

Knocking on the door slightly, I was confused. Why was the principle looking for me? It couldn't be a mission. The principle would always hand the mission to Sakura Sensei to pass it to me. So..? Nevermind, I'll find out in due course.

Within this few years, Nanoha and I had become best friends forever. Seiya had became Nanoha's boyfriend too. Suprising, huh. Tsubasa was still the same as ever, to my relief. But Retsu, he and I had grown really close lately. I don't know why, but I felt so safe with him. And happy. But seriously, something's wrong with me. Why am I fainting randomly at times? Why does my alice have absolutely no limit, but I would die if I used too much of my energy? Once, during a mission, I had pushed myself too far. I landed myself in the hospital for 3 months, in death bed. Why am I so weak? Sure, I am, currently, stronger than any of the teachers of students here, but why my body doesn't endure the pain?

Well, I also had developed a new habit. Somehow, I gained the title of 'Princess of ice'. It might be because I always use my Ice alice and I became emotionless to everyone around me, excluding my gang.

I opened the door and stepped gracefully into the office. "Principle, did you ask for me?"

"Ah, Mikan! That was fast! I just asked for you a minute ago while you were unconscious! Are you okay? You've been out for days!"

"Hai, I'm okay. So, what's the news? Did you happen to find any trouble while I'm out?" I teased. The principle and I were very close.

"Ah, No, no!~" He pouted. He was actually very young, and cute. "It's just, there are a few kids that have been sent to America from Japan!"

From Japan? To here?

"And, they are a bunch of kids that are hard to handle, so, I want you too keep an eye over them!"

Me? On them? Who are they?

"One of them would be participating in our yearly competition too. Basically you'll have to fight with one of them. That person's strong, so be careful, Mikan."

Our yearly competition is held once in a year. It is when we fight against other students to see who wins.

"Who are they, Principle? And when would they be coming?"

"Hmm… Their names are…Kokoro, Anna, Nonoko, Ruka, Hotaru, Luna, and Natsume. They'll be arriving later at 3 p.m. The one that is participating in the competition is Natsume."]

My eyes widened. No way. It's…them. Those bastards. A growl erupted from my throat. Why are they here! Why am I the one who had to look over them? Why!

**Normal pov**

Mikan bangs covered her eyes. She clenched her fist and growled.

"M-Mikan? Are you okay?" The principle asked worriedly. He had never seen Mikan lose control of her emotions before. But…Since it was Mikan, she should be fine…Right?

"Yes, I'm fine. Pardon me, principle, but I'm taking my leave." Mikan murmured, her voice low, and her head bent. Walking out of the office, she slammed the door shut.

Glaring, she punched a wall.

"Damm it. Why is this happening to me? After… After what they had done…I-I can't! I can't forgive them! They're a pack of liars!" Mikan yelled, tears threatening to spill out from her eyes.

She slowly slid down the wall. Bringing her legs up to her knees, she finally broke down and cried, recalling the memories of the betrayal. That was the very first time the princess of ice, had cried.

XxxxX

"Neeee, Naaaaaaaatsuuuuumeee! Just when are we going to reach?"

"Soon."

"Soon's when?"

"Soon's soon."

"Wheeeeeeen?"

"A few more minutes, Luna, Try to be patient, kay?" Anna told her. They were currently walking to the Alice academy In America.

"That's right, after that, we'll all flop down on the bed and have a sleep over, kay?" Nonoko added, smiling.

"Ah! SLEEP OVER! HOORAY! Hallelujah!~" Luna sang, skipping happily

"Should've brought an earplug," Hotaru sighed.

"I have one! Here!" Ruka handed a earplug to her.

"Ruka, you sure are prepared for your little missy, ne?" Koko teased, ignoring Luna and Natsume.

Blushing, Ruka stammered all sorts of denial.

The group, had finally gotten over Mikan, although Koko still wanted to see Mikan again. She was the one who brought smiles to all of them, after all.

Natsume had totally forgotten about Mikan. Right now, he was a playboy and was going out with Luna.

Hotaru is the same as ever, but she got over the fact that Mikan left.

Anna and Nonoko were very happy, almost as if as nothing had changed at all. Although, sometimes they would remember Mikan and start to weep.

"Ah, we've reached,"

Before them, was the humongous Alice academy of America.

"Sugoi!" They breathed.

"We have a maid. A servant, to serve us. So, we can ask her for anything. Just use her according to your wishes." Natsume smirked.

"Sugoi! A maid! Yay! I don't have to do chores! Leave it to the maid! Yay!" Luna gushed.

"So, the maid is late. Where is she? So irresponsible," Hotaru murmured.

"Yeah, like you have the right to talk about me," A familiar voice rang out.

All of their eyes widened. Before them was … Sakura… Mikan…

**Yuki:Don't kill me please!**

**Mikan: That was fast, and weird…**

**Yuki: Pity me! My brain's damaged from all of that studying! Scold me in your reviews! Waaaaaa! *cries***


	16. What Mikan really feels

**Yuki: Hey, everyone! Sorry for the long wait! I'm kinda in a bad mood now though, my mom confiscated the mouse, and I'm doing this with the keyboard only on word.**

**Mikan: Yea, but we have no idea what made her confiscate the mouse…**

**Yuki: I mean, I was SLEEPING and the rest of my family was out. Then my mom, before going to work, confiscated the mouse. What did I do to her? I didn't even see her yesterday…**

**Mikan: But, we're still doing this! Heehee! So please review!**

**Yuki: Wait a minute; let me get that dammed mouse back. This Is very inconvenient. *Growls* -storms away-**

**Mikan: -hears shouts and vase breaking. And some cussing.-**

**Yuki: Yay! I got the mouse back! *smiles***

**Mikan: Y-yuki…What happened… to your mom?**

**Yuki: Oh! She's um…sleeping! Yeah! Okay, here's chapter 16. Really sorry for the wait.**

_Recap:_

"_So, the maid is late. Where is she? So irresponsible," Hotaru murmured._

"_Yeah, like you have the right to talk about me," A familiar voice rang out._

_All of their eyes widened. Before them was … Sakura… Mikan…_

"Hmm? Speechless already? What's wrong? Weren't you guys full of insult past few years ago? Cat got your tongue? Pathetic." Mikan spat.

"What are you saying Mikan? I- We missed you so much! Why did you leave?" Anna asked, ignoring the fact that Mikan's tone was harsh and filled with venom. Her voice held worry, happiness, and excitement, so much that it disgusted Mikan.

"You're asking why I left?" Mikan asked in utter disbelief, arching her eyebrows.

"No, duh," Natsume rolled his eyes. Even up till now, he still believed that all of this; the Mikan now, was fake. Mikan would go all happy and excited and ran to hug them. So, he decided to play along, until Mikan became the Mikan they knew.

"Hyuuga. Don't act mighty. I'm not the person you used to know. I have changed. Don't piss me off. I can crush you anytime." Mikan said sharply, narrowing her eyes.

Natsume was taken by surprise. No, scratch that. Everyone was surprised as hell, although right now let's ignore Luna for a moment.

Back to the main point, Mikan _never _challenged Natsume. Everybody knew that. Besides, she had never used harsh words on them, even in the worst situations they'd put her in. Her tone was never that sharp; her eyes were never that cold, and she never radiated that aura that clashes too much with the previous her.

"Mikan. I've upgraded my baka gun. Don't make me try it out on you. You are wasting my time. Stop acting." Hotaru said, trying her best to sound as normal as possible. Her voice was quivering lightly.

"Ara? Try it then. I'll crush those bullets of yours."

Hotaru flinched slightly. Harsh.

"Mi—"

"Sakura."

"Sakura san, are you okay? Y- You seem to be acting weird…" Ruka stuttered a little, due to fear. This wasn't the Mikan they knew.

"Heh. Nogi, Imai, Hyuuga, Ogasawara, Umenomiya, for your information, I am not acting weird. This," Mikan said, gesturing to her behaviour, "is the results of your actions. Don't remember? Hmph, do I really hold that little importance to you? Can't you even remember that day, the day where _you _lied to _me_. Heh, should have known." Mikan snorted.

"Mi—Sakura, what did we—" Koko tried to ask, in panic. He was not able to read her mind at all. Last time, even though she was able to use her nullification completely, he was still able to peek at her thoughts a little. But now, it was totally blank. Blank.

"Shut up for a moment, Koko. Hold no grudge against you, but shut up." Mikan said, turning her tone back to normal. Koko had not done anything to her, and Mikan was fair, or so she thought. They each got what they deserved.

Nonoko was stepping unsteadily to Mikan. Her brain was not able to register what had happened. She just didn't believe it. This was not an act, Mikan said so herself. She knew Mikan never lied.

"Don't come near me," Mikan said icily, her eyes eying all of them.

A pair of crimson red eyes stared at her, filled with many different kinds of emotions, but mostly, confusion and worry.

"Polka, stop it. Where were you for the past few years? Speak. Now," Natsume said as he tried to burn her hair that was once in pigtails. Nothing.

Mikan smirked. _"Naïve. After all these years he hasn't changed. Did he thought that during this few years, I was in a coma? Of course my alice would have improved." _"Hmm, are you threatening me, Hyuuga? Anyway, your question was obvious. I was in America, duh." Mikan rolled her eyes at his stupidity.

Natsume and Hotaru was about to go berserk. What the hell happened to Mikan? Yes, she did answered his question, but that was definitely not the answer they were looking for, and she _knew _that.

"Don't fret, Imai, Hyuuga. Relax,"

Not noticing that Mikan was still using their first names, they heaved a sigh of relief. This sentence made them think that Mikan was finally back to normal, and would yell cheerfully, "Geez! You guys really believed that? Of course I won't do that for real! You're my best friends forever! Chill! I haven't changed one bit!"

"Don't bother worrying about me _now. _It wasn't like you even cared about me in the first place, so it's easy for you to just hate me, ignore me."

This sentence got their full attention. "Mikan! We _can't_ hate you! We love you! Come back! Return to your old self! Okay?"

Ice daggers flew past them, except for Koko and Luna, causing a scratch in everyone's clothes, hair or cheeks. It was deliberate. They knew. Mikan smirked.

"You love me?" Mikan hissed. "You _love _me? You say that one more time and I make sure you're dead. And, those ice daggers were just a warning. To show you that I've changed for one, and two, I do hate you. Three, I'm not afraid of killing you. I'm this academy top assassin after all. Even stronger than you, Hyuuga. That scratch on your cheek was just a light gesture from me. Get it?"

Everyone stared in shock, standing absolutely still.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY NATSUME! YOU SCRATCED HIS CHEEKS!" Luna yelled, deciding to intervene. _"It's her. Sakura. I better stop this, now."_

"Ah, chill. It's only a scratch, he won't die."

"You," Luna growled. Things were not exactly in her favor. _"Damn it, didn't expected this. Well, forget it. I know your weakness, in and out. Sakura, I'm going to crush you, like I did before," _"Watch out, Sakura Mikan. You'd better start praying."

"Pray?" Mikan snorted. "I do, I pray everyday. Praying that I would somehow find light. Ever since I found out that you lied to me. Guess what, I did find light, unlike you Hyuuga. Not only were you not able to find light, you dragged me into the darkness too. "

"No, I kept you away from it. I even told you directly to stay away from the darkness." Natsume said, not believing what she said.

"No, you didn't. Listen, Hyuuga, Koizumi, don't piss me off if you don't want to end up dead. I'm not kidding. I will kill you, there's no hesitation in me anymore. Don't try me. I don't care if you're the top two fighters in Japan, because, over here, I'm the strongest."

"Mikan…"

"Well, just don't piss me off. Your room is on the eight floor, room 232. Ja ne, but try getting out of that first," Mikan laughed, before stalking away. Hotaru's, Natsume's and Luna's feet were covered in ice. But before walking away, she nodded once to Koko as a sign of friendship. Mikan swiftly jumped to a tree branch when she was out of sight. "That's them." Mikan said, her teeth gritting. "There was a new girl though. Used the identity alice to find out her name. Koizumi Luna, that girl has a weird vibe. Doesn't matter, though."

"Hmm, that Imai Hotaru girl… She kind of…irritates me…" Nanoha murmured softly. "She threatened you, Mikan Chan. With that baka gun or something…"

"Ah, yeah. Her specialty. To hit others with that dammed gun, you'll see it pretty often, and to blackmail. You saw her personality," Mikan replied.

"Hey, you said _'Hold no grudge against you, but shut up' _to that sandy blonde over there. Did he lied to you too? He seemed pretty goofy to lie to anyone…" Seiya commented thoughtfully. _"He acts pretty much like you, Seiya." _Mikan thought in her mind.

"Ah no. He didn't. My words were quite harsh, eh? He seemed pretty shocked," Mikan laughed lightly.

"He was, duh. If you compare that attitude just now to the one they used to know, I'll be surprised if they aren't shocked. But still, Mikan. Did you really have to freeze their feet to the ground? I don't think they can get out of it… I needed to use my alice at full power to melt that ice…" Retsu murmured.

"Nat-Hyuuga isn't as weak as you think, Retsu. I only froze those who are capable of getting out of the ice by themselves. Hyuuga can melt the ice, Imai can blast the ice into pieces with her canon. And koizumi just pisses me off. Her soul-sucking alice should be able to save her for the time being. She seems to be plotting something, though. This is just a small warning to tell her not to try anything funny."

"Not to try anything funny, eh?" Tsubasa repeated. "Well, I don't think you got your message across."

"Still, why did Principal ordered you too look over them? Anyone else can do that job easily…" Nanoha whined, changing the topic. "Because of this stupid job, we have less time with each other!"

"Stop being childish, Nanoha,"

"Hai…"

"Oi, Tsubasa. When you see them, act like how I did earlier. They are going to get a shock when they see you, with me, and ask you a bunch of questions. Don't answer any of them; except for Koko. But just threaten him if he plans to spill anything about us, which he won't."

"Yes ma'am."

"…Do you miss them, Tsubasa?" Mikan asked, raising her eyebrows, able to sense it in his voice.

"I do…Sort of…" Tsubasa replied, a little sadly. He recalled the events he had with them, when Mikan was still Mikan. It had been very fun.

"I see…" Mikan murmured. "I guess you're right. Who wouldn't? I too feel a little….nostalgic… Tsubasa sempai, I don't have the right to control you, you can do whatever you want. Go back to them, if that is your wish. You don't have to stay with us; we're tainted and you're not. I'm the one who dragged you into this mess. I…Guess I shouldn't have, huh…Should have told you to go home when I saw you here… In reality, I wish I can go back to them, like how you want to. I know that, but I can't bring myself to trust them again. I'm afraid." Mikan continued, letting her loose bangs cover her eyes. "I'm no longer what I'm used to be. But, it's okay." Mikan looked up at her gang, excluding Tsubasa. "I have my trusted friends with me. It's fine if I…don't have them…" **(I'm not going to make Mikan that bloody cold and blind to people's expressions.)**

Everyone stared at her, their eyes held worry. Tsubasa stayed silent, not wanting to pursue this subject any further. _"Go back to them, if that is your wish…" _

"Mikan…" They muttered. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know how to comfort her. Only Tsubasa, her favourite sempai knows. But right now, he was too at a loss. To Retsu, Seiya and Nanoha, this was the first time they felt Mikan silently crying out in pain. Tsubasa diverted his gaze to Mikan ex-gang, in pain.

Mikan noticed their expressions and their loss at what to do.

"H-Hey, what's with that face? Don't worry, I'm fine! Look, homeroom's about to start. We better get going, Nanoha. J-Ja ne, Tsubasa, Retsu, Seiya." Mikan said, stuttering over some words. She hurriedly grabbed Nanoha's hand and quickly jumped town the tree and walked away, not giving them a chance to say something else.

"Mikan Chan, are you sure? Our homeroom is Billy's lesson. You've always ditched his lessons, you know." Nanoha asked, changing the topic to a lighter subject.

"…I'm attending his lessons today… I need to take my mind off things…" Mikan murmured back.

"Okay. Ah, Mikan Chan. Sakura Sensei said that you have a mission today with someone else. It's not us, so you'll be working with a stranger, Good luck, and don't kill that person." Nanoha told her.

"Tch… fine…" Mikan inwardly felt cautious. _"Why me? And why now? I get this bad feeling about the mission later…"_

XXxxXX (I'm thinking of stopping here, but, nah…)

"Class, be happy! We have 7 new gorgeous transfer students today! Please welcome them!" Billy Sensei said loudly, the word gorgeous catching everyone's attention. "Pretty boys and beautiful ladies, please come in!" Billy sensei smiled at Mikan, who was twitching madly.

-**Boom-**

"_Ugh… Not them again…" _Mikan groaned.

Billy was lying on the floor, his neck twisted in a weird angle, and the door was blasted open.

"Do you really want to die? You've been pissing me off since the first time you opened your bloody mouth," Hotaru threatened, holding the bazooka cannon in her hands.

Hotaru, Natsume, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, Koko and Luna walked in the classroom.

"P-please, no v-violence…"

"Say that again?" Hotaru asked.

"I mean, p-please introduce yourselves!"

"Okay, Sure! I'm Anna! Nice to meet you! Cooking alice!"

"I'm Nonoko! Nice to meet you too! Chemistry alice!"

"_Since when did they speak individually?" _

"Hey! The name's Kokoro! Call me Koko! Mind reading alice, beware!" He joked.

"I'm Ruka, animal pheromone."

"Imai Hotaru, invention alice. And please, no 'Hotaru chan' except for that one person," She said, her eyes fixed on me. The rest of them followed Hotaru's stare and found me, sitting at the corner. Their expressions immediately changed. "Mikan Chan…"

Mikan raised her eyebrows. Were they just going to hang there forever?

"Hyuuga Natsume. Alice of fire," Natsume murmured, understanding my stare fully.

"I'm Koizumi Luna! It's nice to meet you! I hope we can be good friends, Ne?" Luna smiled cheerfully, and clasped her hands together.

A sea of whispers rose.

"Hey, Hyuuga looks hot, don't you think?"

"No, Ruka is better! He looks so princely!"

"Look at Koko! He's hot! Although his face says otherwise…"

"Luna is so cute! I wish she was my girlfriend…"

"Hey, don't you think Anna and Nonoko look similar?"

"What's with Imai? She just blasted Billy Sensei away…"

"A-anyway! They'll only be here for 2 weeks! All of you, you can sit wherever you want. Just be careful not to sit next to Mikan, you'll be in the hospital by 3 days if you do!" Billy laughed.

"What did you mean by that?" Mikan growled. "I'm attending your dammed class for once in my whole life and you insult me."

"Well, don't take it to heart."

Natsume walked over to Mikan, never once removing his gaze from her.

"I'm sitting here," He stated, pointing to the seat next to Mikan.

"Do I look like I care?" Mikan said.

"She does," Natsume replied, pointing to Nanoha. Nanoha was snarling fiercely at Natsume, telling him to go away. But this was Natsume we're talking about. He plopped down onto his seat, lifted his legs and placed it on the table.

"Haven't grown out of that habit yet, Hyuuga?" Mikan raised her eyebrows. "Aren't you afraid that one day, your chair will fall over and you'll crash onto the ground?" _"Now, try to be friendly, Mikan. This is as much as I can go to treat him as a classmate. Not a friend, classmate." _Mikan reminded herself. She was not able to help but to see Natsume and the others as good buddies for a brief second. All of this was so familiar to her, so nostalgic.

"Wouldn't happen," Natsume grunted. For now, he decided, he wouldn't pursue Mikan any more. Yes, that was incredibly hard, but, over time, everything would return to normal. Right now, he had to act like…like Mikan had behaved like this from the very beginning. Or so he thought.

"Show off," Mikan mumbled. "Nanoha. Breathe. In and out. But don't hyperventilate. He'll die soon. I'll make sure of it. But not now. During the competition, I'll kill him." Nanoha was holding her breath, watching Mikan's and Natsume's every move with anticipation. It had been more than a minute.

Hotaru, ignored up till now, walked over to Mikan. "I'm sitting here, go find another seat," She said icily to the boy that was sitting in front of Mikan.

"B-but, this is m-my seat!" He whimpered. "It's a rare chance I get t-to seat in front of Mikan sama, so—"

"—What? Say that again?"

"I'm sorry! Here! Have my seat!"

Hotaru sat down and stared at Mikan. "Sakura. Good to see you again," Hotaru had also came to the same conclusion with Nastume. Act like she was like this from the beginning.

"It's not. Now, stop bothering me. I'll really kill you. That ice attack wasn't my best."

"You won't. We're frie—classmates," Ruka interrupted.

"Ex-classmates."

"Whatever," Hotaru said as she faced the front.

"_I'm going to treat them like how I treat the class. Sure, they do not deserve my kindness. They betrayed me, and I swore to sever all ties with them and here they are, talking to me. I'm supposed to be the ice princess, as cold as ice, but since I found Nanoha, Retsu and the rest, I've not been living up to that title. I'm just unfriendly, not cold and emotionless. I can't help but feel…happy with them. Like how I felt before."_ Mikan thought.

"_Maybe, I haven't forgotten them after all this years. Maybe, I still love them."_**(Right, in this story, I want Mikan to be more accepting, and face reality.)**

**Yuki: How was it? Sorry for the late update! Yeah, Mikan isn't that cold. In the fight earlier, she acted all 'I hate you, bastard' to them was because she got too trapped up in her hate. But when she talked to Tsubasa, she got the 'I miss them' feeling. So, I made her a little more open…**

**Mikan: At least I'm not going to torture them anymore…**

**Yuki: So, please review. Wow, holidays' over. I'm starting school tomorrow. That was…fast. Wish me good luck! Bye! :)**


	17. badly went mission, a hopeless soul

**Yuki: Hey! How are you guys doiug? Sorry for the real long update! Been busy like hell! Had two performance in a row! Phew! And then, there were the exams! Another reason was, I was stuck. But now since my exams are all over, I guess I have to work on my fanfics.**

**Mikan: I wonder what' going to happen to me in this story! Natsume and Hotaru are here, and I can't bring myself to hate them! Hm, hey Yuki, will I make up with them int his chapter?**

**Yuki:Here's the script…*hands it over to Mikan***

**Mikan.: Hey that's a good idea too. Dramatic. It's good.**

**Yuki Iwanna thank you for your upmost patience. Here is Betrayed chapter 17.**

_Recap:_

"_I'm going to treat them like how I treat the class. Sure, they do not deserve my kindness. They betrayed me, and I swore to sever all ties with them and here they are, talking to me. I'm supposed to be the ice princess, as cold as ice, but since I found Nanoha, Retsu and the rest, I've not been living up to that title. I'm just unfriendly, not cold and emotionless. I can't help but feel…happy with them. Like how I felt before."_ _Mikan thought._

"_Maybe, I haven't forgotten them after all this years. Maybe, I still love them."_

_End of recap_

**Mikan's pov**

Sakura Sensei was speechless. She couldn't say anything about my state. She had never seen my so beat up before. I had always come out of missions alone unscathed. But this time, even with Retsu, I had gotten so bloody injured, the whole gang and her freaked out. What they didn't understand was, This mission was a fairly simple one, so how on earth did the N.o 1 best fighter in the academy got so seriously injured?

Sure, I did finish the mission and all, but I was bleeding profusely at the stab wound in my side. And I overused my alice so I couldn't used my healing alice. Right there and then, I was about to collapse onto the training ground. Remember that one time I talked about the consequences of overusing my alice? My alices will never disappear, but if my energy level is below 10%, I'll have a 85% chance of dying.** (A/n Chapter 10) **You want to know my energy level now? 18%. Pathetic right? If I use my healing alice, which uses a lot of energy, mind you, I think I'll really die.

"Mikan Chan, are you okay? You look really pale." Nanoha asked worriedly.

I nodded my head, unable to speak. Retsu was by my side, supporting me. He was the only one who knew about the thing with me and my alice.

"What happened to you, chibi?" Tsubasa asked in concern.

"I… was distracted…" I murmured softly. That's a lie. Wanna know the real reason? Fucking Hyuuga was there. In the mission. We happened to be partners. So, I did okay and all, but he had to loose focus and become a target for the guards. And yea, you guessed it. I was stupid enough to take the attack for him. Don't ask me why though.

Sakura Sensei still looked confused, but the rest of my gang looked at me with worry. "I'm going to my room. See you tomorrow…" I mumbled, and stumbled back to my room, with the help of Retsu.

Once I stepped into my room with Retsu behind me, I fell to the ground.

"Ow damn. The stab hurts better than the broken bones." I tried to joke, but ended up failing as Retsu did not find it one bit funny.

"You better take care of yourself properly this week," He said, as he helped me to the bed. He got out the first aid kit that was deeply hidden in my closet and started tending to my wounds.

"Mmm. Okay… Thank god you know how to tend to wounds properly. If not I would be flooding my room with blood. Damn that Hyuuga—OW! BE GLENTER, WOULD YOU?"

"Had to wrap that bandage tight. You can take a stab wound but you can't take a bandage without screaming…"

"Aw shush." I was really surprise that I could even talk at that moment. I should have fainted already. "…You know what?" I said suddenly. "I don't know why nor do I understand why I saved him. He was about to get stabbed and my instincts took over and I just…I don't know anymore…What's happening to me, Retsu?" I said in a whisper.

He looked at me with pain in his eyes. I cast my head down to prevent my tears from slipping out.

Suddenly, I was engulfed in a warm embrace. "R-Retsu…? What are you—" I was then silenced by him.

"Mikan."

The way he said my name almost killed me. It was filled to the brim with sadness, pain, and longing. I inhaled sharply.

"I love you. I always have. Ever since I first met you. Forget about him, I'll help you. I don't want to see you suffer anymore. Please," He squeezed me tighter in his arms, as I felt tears pooling in my eyes. I couldn't deny that my heart was pulled to him, I couldn't push him away. Is it because he had patched up my heart when I first came to Japan? Ever since the beginning, I began to like him, just like how I did with Natsume. But this time, it was different. The thing was, I liked him, and I _knew _that he wouldn't push me away, unlike how Natsume did. At least, it should be like that…

**Normal pov**

A lump grew in her throat as she hugged him back in sorrow and in happiness. Ignoring the deep feeling bubbling uneasily as if something was wrong in the pit of her stomach, she murmured. "…Help me, Retsu. I want to forget about him…You won't leave me too, right?"

Mikan was practically squashed to death when Retsu hugged her even tighter. "Of course not," He said soothingly. "Never. I'll help you. I love you, Mikan. I really do."

"Mm. I know…I do, too." Mikan replied softly, before adding in her mind, _"I don't know what's what anymore. At least, I have some attraction for him…"_

But the silent, unanswered questions were, was it _enough_? And, what about _Natsume?_

Natsume stumbled back into his room, eyes wider than usual. His mind was unable to comprehend what had just happened during the mission with Mikan. Her.

At first, he had snorted at the thought of having a mission when he only just arrived. But when he saw that it was Mikan he was working with, he gladly accepted, unlike Mikan who opposed strongly. He thought he would show Mikan that he _was _strong, and she had stated wrongly. However, as soon as Mikan put on her mask, she became as void as ever. Like a professional. Her voice became what it was when she first saw them in America. Cold, icy, slivery, and laced with evil and darkness.

She had left Natsume behind once she started running and jumping. He had been struggling to keep up with her. He had been led by Mikan, too. He had been left behind by her, warned by her, advised by her, looked down upon by her, helped by her, led by her, instructed by her, taught by her, and _hell, _even _saved _by her!

It was just as it said. Mikan's speed was too fast for Natsume, in the end, she had to slow down for him. He was about to do something reckless, when Mikan fortunately read his mind and warned him not to. She also warned him that he had to be careful and follow every footstep she made. Yet he still made a mistake. He had been advised by Mikan about how to deal with the guards, and exactly how to use his alice in the most effective way. He had Mikan snorted at him, disappointed at his ability. Mikan also helped Natsume when he was unable to fight a large group by his own buy taking more opponents for herself. He was led by her, being told exactly what to do, where to go. Also due to a careless mistake, he was a target for the guards. And Mikan jumped in to save him. And got stabbed by the guard. Even worse, she immediately teleported him back to the academy too. Only him. He was betting that Mikan called her gang to help her.

He narrowed his eyes. How pathetic and useless he felt! So dependent! So weak! So…pained!

He never thought the mission would turn out like this. He never thought Mikan would be so professional in missions. It wasn't her to kill. He was baffled when Mikan killed heartlessly, even killing those innocent. Her only reply was, "Hyuuga. You're too weak. I kill whoever that sees me in missions. That's me, the top fighter, top assassin. You're too naïve Hyuuga. You're only dragging me down. You've been doing that since the start of the mission."

And damm right she was! Natsume sighed as he plopped down to the bed. This wasn't like him! If he was worried about how Mikan was, he would have bloody hell get out of his room, and checked on Mikan. But, there he was, sitting dumbly on his bed not moving an inch.

"_Coward. You've changed Natsume. Drastically."_ He thought to himself, and shook his head. If he wanted Mikan, the old Mikan back now, it was way too late. Acting ignorant won't help either. It was blatantly obvious after the mission that day.

"**Heh. All of them are fools. Playing straight into my hands all the time. All of them," A figure in a cold dungeon spoke. "Sure, there **_**is**_** one lurking behind the shadows right now, more sinister, more evil, but, my action is forming first, eh? All of this is like a game. A simple game. How easy it is to manipulate a human's heart! Well, cry out in agony, writhe in pain! You're going to get it back from me ten times fold! You better watch out from now…" A sinister smirk crept up his features.**

**Yuki: Alright, I'll stop here for today. I had kept you guys waiting long enough. Last part was sadistic, eh? Tome, my story plot is **_**complicated **_**so take your time reading through it. **

**Mikan: Reviews please? We practically live by it.**

**Yuki: They are my life. Scold me, haunt me, curse me for my late update, whatever. It gives me motivation. Feel free to criticize. I'm actually begging. Ha.**

**Mikan: well then, this concludes this chapter. Don't mind Yuki, she's just very depressed over her lack of review for her other story. She gets affected easily.**

**Snowflake: Yeah! She does! Nice meeting ya'll again! I might be back for the next chapter or two! Missed you guys waaay too much! Muaks! See ya soon! Review for my half dead sister! Bye!**


	18. Seeing and understanding

**Yuki: Oh my god. I'm SICK AGAIN. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS.**

**Mikan: You get sick too easily, Yuki.**

**Yuki: I know. And it sucks.**

**Snowflake: I hate it when you're sick. It's so troublesome.**

**Yuki: Hey! You don't know the suffering of being sick!**

**Snowflake: Blame your own immune system, girl. Hey, and we both know this chapter sucks. Yuki is out of it for some reason.**

**Yuki: Hmph! Shut up before I stick my foot in there, Snowflake. Anyway, the plot is decided. Enjoy chapter 18. Although you might find it…weird…**

_Recap:_

"_**Heh. All of them are fools. Playing straight into my hands all the time. All of them," A figure in a cold dungeon spoke. "Sure, there is one lurking behind the shadows right now, more sinister, more evil, but, my action is forming first, eh? All of this is like a game. A simple game. How easy it is to manipulate a human's heart! Well, cry out in agony, writhe in pain! You're going to get it back from me ten times fold! You better watch out from now…" A sinister smirk crept up his features.**_

_End of recap_

The very next day, Natsume woke up, a dreading feeling in the pit of his stomach. His guts were telling him to stay in bed, never get up and slip into oblivion. But he couldn't.

_**BAM**_

Natsume wasn't able to process anything when he was sent flying out of his bed, to the other side of his room.

"Get up, Hyuuga. You lazy ass," Hotaru commented dryly, blowing out the tip of her bazooka gun. "It's time for school."

Natsume groaned as he slid down the wall. Getting injured in a mission late in the night was one thing, and getting tortured under the hands of the ice queen in the early morning was another.

As if that wasn't enough to make Natsume's morning a living hell, Luna squealed childishly in his ear. If he had to give one word, it was 'deafening',

"Natsume Kun! Where _were _you last night? You had me panicking the whole time!" She whined.

Natsume chose not to answer that, and ignored her. Instead he turned to Hotaru, and without any apparent emotions displayed, said, "Get out."

Hotaru stood rooted to the ground, not moving an inch, staring straight up at Natsume's face, also having the same blank stare on. It was almost as of they were communicating telepathically.

"_Imai and Hyuuga are alike. Their personality is the same, I swear. Watching them do things scares me. They have the same style, same everything. Anyway, once it's class time, the game begins." _Luna thought, her face still masked with her usual bright smile that everyone knew.

Stoically, Hotaru turned and stalked off the room, dragging Luna along with her. "Hurry up and get dressed, stupid."

Natsume didn't budge for a moment, before snapping out of it and got dressed, taking his time.

As seconds ticked by, Natsume couldn't help but feel infuriated. About what? Why, about the rumors, of course.

Wait, you _don't know? _Alright, I'll fill you in.

Since the minute Natsume left his dorm with his gang, there had been rumors and chatters along the corridors, in the cafeteria, toilets, classrooms, music room, art room, basically everywhere.

And the part that lit up the fire in Natsume was the topic the rumors were on.

"Hey, did you hear? The ice princess is like, in love with the cold and hot Retsu Li!" A girl gossiped, passing by Natsume with her friends.

"No way! Mikan Sama is in love with Retsu! And they're_ going out? _The two 'coldest person on earth'?" Another gasped in disbelief.

Natsume clenched his fist and held it by his sides. He was never going to believe it. _Never. _Mikan, the Mikan wouldn't go out with anybody. Nobody likes the clumsy and dumb Mikan.

He stopped his trail of thought and smiled bitterly. He _loved _that Mikan. He loved her. But she had changed. Almost every student in the school literally fear, and admire her. Worship, even. There was no surprise that Mikan had a lover. It's been, what? Four years? He snorted. Of course she would have moved on. It would be weird if she didn't.

But something in him was still holding on. Hoping, hoping hard.

When they reached their class, Natsume's doubts were cleared. There, right in front of his very eyes, stood Mikan, whose ankle was wrapped in a bandage from last night's mission, and Retsu. They were holding hands, laughing merrily, and oblivious to the whole world around them. Natsume felt an emotion bubbling in his chest. Jealously, he realized. He was jealous of Retsu.

Jaws clenched tightly, he walked over, with Hotaru and Luna, and sat in his seat, creating a lot of noise in the process.

Mikan got distracted from the noise, and realized that Natsume was there, sitting next to her. And Hotaru, her ex-best friend was seated in front of her, back turned to face her with an expressionless face. Luna was standing at Natsume's table, clearly flirting with him.

And she shouldn't, really shouldn't, but she felt _jealous._

She was horrified, disgusted with herself. She loved Retsu, agreed to go out with him, and she felt jealous of Luna flirting with her back stabbing ex boyfriend. Right in front of Retsu too! She felt like cursing. She felt like…just exploding everything.

She felt Retsu squeeze her hand.

"Mikan."

Mikan looked at Retsu, her eyes burdened with guilt, confusion, longing, despair, and hatred. Hatred for herself.

Retsu felt his heart clench at Mikan's expression. Not caring about anything around him, he drew Mikan into a kiss, right in front of the whole class. In front of Natsume.

Mikan eyes widened for a moment, before closing, and accepted Retsu's kiss.

Mikan felt her spirits lift for the first time in the four years. Her troubles, worries, and bottled emotions were set free. She felt like she once used to; like the old Mikan, only a little less innocent.

The kiss was filled with passion, love, and comfort. The whole class, including Natsume, could see that there was no lust involved, just sweet passion and love. It did aggravate Natsume, no doubt about that, but what could he do?

When Retsu broke the kiss, he smiled at Mikan. Mikan, still dazed by the kiss, faintly and gratefully smiled back.

Her mind was cleared. She knew what exactly was happening with her, and she understood more complicated things she didn't understand before.

The kiss invoked special feelings deep within her.

First, it was shock. Shocked that Retsu had kissed her in front of everyone. She never knew that Retsu would do such a thing. She never dreamed of it. Next, she felt panicky. _"Natsume is here! Watching me kiss Retsu! What should I do?" _She thought at that time. She, at that point in time, did not know why she had bothered to wonder what Natsume would think of her. They were already over. Over.

Then, she felt it. Retsu's undying passion and love for her. Just knowing that someone cared this greatly for her made her smile widely. Due to that, she was able to get rid of her bottled up frustrations and was able to think and feel clearly in a long while.

"_I love Retsu. I really do. He loves me too. It was blatantly obvious. But hey! Although Natsume once back stabbed me, although he betrayed me, I can't stop loving him, and I know it. My reaction when Luna was flirting with him was proof enough. Not only that, I took a stab for him even when I was only feeling hatred for him, or so I thought. I love both of them. I need both of them to keep me sane. Natsume had taught me the feeling of 'love', he taught me how to be happy, he taught me how to have fun during the time I was in Japan. Retsu patched up my broken heart, he taught me how to love again, he taught me how to forgive, and tried to teach me how to forget. But to forget Natsume is impossible. He once played a part of my life. An important part at that. I am torn between the two, and I can't decide. However, I am sure that fate has its way, and I'm going to let it do what it wants. I'm glad for this kiss. It woke me up. For good. At first, confusion blinded me. But now, it no longer will."_

"Did you figure it out?" Retsu whispered lovingly into her ear.

Mikan nodded, tears in her eyes. "I can't believe this, Retsu. I am so stupid! I'm glad I figured this out now. I'm so glad. Thank you, Retsu. You helped me, a lot. I know this is hurting you, Retsu. I know, and I apologize. I'm sorry, but I can't help it." She whispered back.

Retsu nodded with understanding. "I know, Mikan. I know. Anything for you, anything." He cooed.

Mikan broke down into a fit of sobs and used her palms to cover her face. The rest of the class was stunned. The ice princess smiled, cried, and showed emotions that day. They finally realized, the ice princess was not an ice princess after all. She had her own reasons for acting like she used to, and had experienced what every normal person would have felt. They felt guilty for assuming that she never had any difficulties. They felt guilty that they thought she had no emotions. They felt guilty for assuming that she never had a heart.

Natsume was speechless. He couldn't grasp what was happening well. First of all, Mikan and Retsu had kissed, and Mikan had the look of pure bliss. Then, he saw Mikan's eyes. The light was back there, like it had always been there before. He stiffened as Mikan wiped her eyes and looked at him.

"Natsume,"

Natsume's eyes widened. How he had missed hearing his name from her! The same, old cheerful and light voice was used that he once knew was brought back to life.

"Natsume," She repeated. "I'm sorry, for everything. I did not know what I was doing. I came to my senses, Natsume. And I would like to start over with you. As friends."

Nanoha, Retsu, and Seiya stood at the side, not wanting to interrupt.

Then, something in Mikan's eyes flickered, almost as if she remembered something.

"Oh," She added, thoughtfully. "I hope I can be friends with all of you again too, Hotaru, Anna, Nonoko, Ruka, Koko."

Said people smiled in delight, and immediately ran over to Mikan. And crushed her in a bear hug.

"MIKAN CHAN!" Squealing, Anna and Nonoko excitedly hugged Mikan.

Mikan laughed, and gently pushed them away. "Hey, careful. That hurt," She winced at the throbbing pain caused by the stab wound. "Anyway," She continues, a little colder than before. "I won't be trusting you that easily though. You would have to work for it. Considering what you have done, I think it's fair."

Before they could agree, although having no clue as to what she was saying, Luna butted in.

"Whatever. We could care less anyway. We could do much better without you. We all hate you. Don't you remember? This is all a trick, stupid."

The rest of the gang gasped in horror, but wasn't in time to say anything else.

"Besides, what are you thinking? Trying to get back with Natsume kun while you're dating Retsu? Slut." She hissed.

Mikan eyes narrowed, her harsh glare with that same icy coldness intact. "Koizumi. I have never included you in my speech, so don't use the word 'we'. If I'm a slut, then you're no better." She spat coldly, making the rest shiver in fear. But not Luna. She wasn't one to be discouraged and backed down that easily.

"If Natsume's in it, so am I. I'm his _girlfriend_, so _you _keep _that _in mind."

A cold wind blew past them as the temperature lowered drastically. "You won't want me to loose my temper, Koizumi." Mikan said, her anger rising uncontrobally. "Before I kill you, I'm getting the hell out of here. But just for amusement," She smirked. "I'll like to see you bald." With that done, she strode out from the classroom, not waiting for an answer from the gang.

When she was ten foot away from the classroom, a high pitched shriek pierced the air. She stopped walking, and smirked lightly.

"_SOMEONE HELP PUT THIS FIRE OUT!"_

Her cries echoed through the hallway, and made Mikan laugh at how ridiculous she sounded. "Think before you talk, stupid."

The rest of the gang, including a very happy Tsubasa, laughed along with Mikan.

But, if she were to be honest, Luna's harsh words did bother her. A lot.

But she shrugged that off. She wasn't going to loose sight of her understanding and acceptance now. Not now, not ever.

XxxXxxXxx

**Yuki: I know, I know. Don't rub it in. Don't know whether this is fine or not. It just suddenly came to me to have Mikan realize her feelings in this chapter so I made it like that.**

**Snowflake: Review please! Do you like this, or not? We want to know. REVIEW! **

**Mikan: HOTARUUUUU! I'VE MISSED YOU!**

**Hotaru: We might be back together if you review. Natsume and Mikan might also be lovely dovey if you do. Or I'll just blackmail you. Oh yes, I do have stuffs to blackmail. I have my resources.**


	19. The competition

**Hi guys, I'm sorry to have you waiting for more than a month for this chapter. School's been hectic and I'm hell as busy. Plus, my parents bought a new computer, so all my files are lost. I'm trying to get them back now. And I thought up of another plot which I think will be better so I'll be using that. Enjoy this chapter.**

"Now, you listen to me. I don't want any innocent more innocent lives lost on this day, you got me? Absolutely no killing."

"I don't kill," Retsu replied indignantly.

"Like hell you don't," Mikan rolled her eyes. "How many people, aside from those in missions as you had no choice, have you burned or freeze to death, and exactly how many ended up paralysed?"

"…"

"See? You can't deny that, can you?"

"Well, they deserved it. You reap what you sow."

Mikan rolled her eyes once more. "And what exactly did they 'sow'?"

"…"

Mikan sighed. Of course. Retsu had never had patience with people who was irritating. And to him, almost everybody was irritating. Almost.

"It isn't as if you're any different than me."

"Try saying that again."

"That agai— woah, whoah. Chill, Mikan. I was just joking! Seriously!"

"…"

"Fine! Okay, Ms. Sakura, I'll do my upmost best to control myself and behave. Is that alright now?"

"Yep!"

Retsu heaved a sigh. "Yeesh. Sometimes I wonder how a woman can be so — so infuriating."

"Well, sometimes I wonder why, in heaven and hell combined, I agreed to become a couple with the most irritating and stupidest and ordinary man alive."

Retsu arched an eyebrow. "Ordinary?" He echoed, not liking what he heard. _"Ordinary?" _He gave a snort. "I think you better go for vocabulary lessons, Mikan. It's all mixed up."

"It's not. It's the perfect word to describe you," Mikan teased.

"Why then, did you fell for such a boring and ordinary guy?"

"Because he, at the same time, is such a pain-in-the-ass, he's not boring or ordinary any longer."

"Why thank you."

Mikan and Retsu were walking around the corridors, heading towards the cafeteria. Today was the day of the International competition, and Mikan had been especially jumpy since morning.

Well, I wouldn't blame her. I mean, imagine having a boyfriend and an ex-boyfriend. You're head-over-heels in love with both, and both of them are also madly in love with you too. They hold a grudge against each other. They are dangerous fighters. And they would give anything to bash each other up against the wall.

Mikan was frightened, really.

To tell the truth, she found it weird. She had been so depressed before she was blind to everything around her to a great extent. But then, all she really needed was just some comfort and reassurance and her mind cleared enough to finally see that her ex-gang honestly ad truly regretted betraying her. Either that, or they didn't even recall a time of betrayal.

And now what? After years of holding a grudge against them and hurting them, she was going to go back into the comfort of their arms just like that?

But it seems that that's what they want, in reality.

But what about Nanoha, Retsu, and the rest of her gang?

Not only that, she had to fight with Natsume later during the competition, whether Retsu win or lose the match with him.

"I wish Natsume's place could be switched with Luna. Really," Mikan thought, irked. "I can bash her up with no worries."

If Mikan was given a word to describe Luna, it would be 'bitch'.

Luna had been throwing degrading insults at Mikan whenever she had the chance.

"_Trying to lower my self-esteem, I suppose."_ Mikan rolled her eyes once more. Not only did it not work, it made her feel irritated. As in, really irritated and annoyed.

"Well. I can almost bet you were close to thinking about killing someone," Retsu said, noticing Mikan's strange behaviour.

Wrong. She was already there, not 'close to'.

Mikan sighed once more. "Maybe you're right. I'm not as different as you."

Retsu laughed. "Hey, don't look so glum. We were trained to think this way, after all."

Mikan chuckled lightly. _"It's so like him to try to cheer me up." _"Thanks, Retsu."

When they reached the cafeteria, Mikan slowed her walking pace. "_Man, the students here are going to be twice as irritating due to the competition today."_

Mikan inhaled slowly and slammed open the doors as she normally did. The noisy chatters of the cafeteria was silenced almost immediately, as usual, as the duo strode in with a blank face intact.

Seas of excited whispers rose among the students as they eyed the emotionless duo.

Mikan sighed silently._ "I knew it."_

Suddenly, the holder of a pair of crimson eyes stood before her, stopping the two dead in their tracks.

Mikan blinked, surprised.

"What, Natsume?"

Retsu growled silently, not liking how Mikan had so readily accepted the betrayer back into her life.

"A-are you fighting later?"

"Yes, I am. Be careful, okay, Natsume? You'll get crushed," Mikan stated worriedly.

He shrugged.

"It's not me I'm worried about," he admitted after a few moments.

Mikan eyes widened, as she smiled faintly. Natsume was worried for her.

"I'm fine, Natsume. You'll be impressed by me later on," Winking, Mikan tried to reassure him.

"…"

"I'm serious, Natsume!"

"I'm being serious too."

"No, I'm seriously—never mind. Ugh. Let's see how things go, okay? I got to go; I need my lunch, unlike you who burns all your food." Mikan rolled her eyes, walking past Natsume.

"Oi! Wait!"

A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around. Mikan blushed slightly.

"I love you. I really do, Mikan. Give me a chance. Please."

Mikan was too shocked for words.

"I…"

Before she was able to give an acceptable answer, her other free arm was grabbed by Retsu, who dragged her away.

"Wait! Natsume! I_" Mikan stopped and sighed. She was never going to be able to answer Natsume's question. Or confession. It was probably a good thing that Retsu had dragged her away.

When Retsu stopped walking, Mikan looked at him. His head was bowed, fist clenched, and eyes pained.

"Retsu?" Mikan spoke, softly tugging the hem of his sleeve.

Retsu smiled his usual smile. "What, Mikan?"

"I-I'm sorry."

His eyes softened as he cupped Mikan's cheeks. "Mikan. It isn't easy to forget about someone you really love and care about. Although it's painful, it's alright because it's for you. I'll give you all the time you need, Mikan. I'll give up anything for you. I'm going to stay right here, by your side, boyfriend or not. I've loved you for so long now, I'll be dammed if I give you up without a fight."

"Retsu…"

Retsu let go of Mikan's cheeks and then placed his hands on his hips casually.

"Well, didn't you say you needed lunch? You're going to have to wolf down your food if you don't hurry."

"Um…Yeah," Mikan agreed awkwardly. She really didn't know what else to say. Nothing came to her mind.

Yet one thing she knew. The competition later would be one of her most dreaded memories in the future.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxx

"I wish things weren't this complicated," Mikan thought bitterly, walking over to a tree.

It was night, just before the dreaded competition.

Mikan felt uneasy, like something big and unexpected was going to come flying at her at the speed of a bullet. She didn't know if it was going to be about Natsume, or Retsu, or the competition, or something totally different. Mind reading wasn't going to help in this case. She didn't know if her uneasy feeling in her gut was good or bad. It might even be just her imagination.

Not knowing sucks.

"Oi."

Mikan blinked, and whipped her head around.

"Wha— Oh, it's just you." Mikan said in realisation. "Don't you have to prepare yourself for the competition? Like warm-ups?"

Natsume snorted. "Pot calling the kettle black. Who do you think I am? I'm Natsume Hyuuga, just in case your pea brain has forgotten."

Mikan rolled her eyes. "Right." _"He's just as infuriating as Retsu."_

"Well? What are you doing here, Ms. Mikan Sakura?"

"Just…thinking about some things."

Natsume didn't reply as he studied Mikan with his crimson orbs blazing under the moonlight.

Aware of his stare, colour slowly rose in Mikan's cheeks as her breath hitched slightly.

Natsume raised an eyebrow.

"I am not blushing."

His raised eyebrow didn't lower.

"I said I'm not blushing!"

The corner of Natsume's lips twitched upwards into an amused smirk.

"I'M NOT BLUSHING DAMMIT. WHAT'S WITH YOU AND YOUR GODDAMNED BRAIN?"

The way Mikan understood Natsume's mind was a humorous, yet mysterious wonder.

"Wipe that smirk of your face, Natsume," Mikan threatened, pointing a finger at him and glaring slightly.

"How to? A smirk can't be _wiped away__**." **_

Mikan, after a few moments, slumped her shoulders in defeat. "Fine, whatever. I don't care."

Natsume smirked wider, if that was humanely possible.

"I'm so going to trash you later on, just you wait." Mikan said in annoyance, leaning back against the tree.

Natsume, hands in his pockets, raised his eyebrow once again as he walked over to Mikan and leaned against the same tree.

Both stayed silent then, as the peacefully listened to the commotion outside on the field. The competition was about to begin.

"Hey, Natsume," Mikan started, getting his attention. "What do you think…of our situation now?"

"…Completely hopeless, complicated, rushed, unexpected, stressed, hard, heartbreaking, saddening, and dim."

"Hopeless, huh…"

Before Mikan could continue, Natsume interrupted. "But I won't give you up no matter how hopeless it seems. If you thought you've gotten rid of me, you're dead wrong.

Not even giving Mikan a chance to react, he twisted his body and swiftly crushed his lips onto Mikan's.

Mikan's eye widened as she processed Natsume's kiss. He was kissing her, like the time during Christmas. Tears flooded her eyes as she recalled the times with Natsume.

"_I'm his __girlfriend__, so __you __keep __that __in mind." _

Yet Luna's words still rang clear in her mind.

Forcing herself to pull away harshly from the kiss, she pretended to snarl. "What about Luna? Don't tell me you're going to ditch her just like that."

Natsume, eyes dark, let his hands fall limply from Mikan's shoulders as he looked away.

"Natsume!" Mikan urged, trying to put her thoughts back in order.

"I..I'll do anything for you, Mikan. If leaving her makes you happy, then I will. I'll do what you want. Tell me, what do you want?"

Natsume's answer scared her greatly. What did she want?

"_What do I want?"_

"I…"

Natsume sighed. "Don't push yourself. You're placing a lot of stress upon yourself, Mikan."

"I'm…fine. I wish…things weren't so complicated."

Natsume laughed, bitterness mixed into amusement. "Who doesn't? I do, too."

Their lips met once more, however, this time, Mikan took the initiative,

XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx

"Hey, are you sure you're alright?" Nanoha asked in concern, frowning.

"Yes," Mikan repeated for the umpteenth time, as she put on her mission clothes for the competition.

"Well, if you say so…" Nanoha murmured, staring at Mikan with her sky blue orbs.

Mikan, noticing her stare, sighed. If the saying that you lost a little bit of youth everytime you sighed was true, Mikan would be an old grandma by now.

"I'm fine, I just had a little…" Mikan trailed off. "Anyway, though I admit I'm not in top condition, I can still easily kick their asses. You saw me kicking them just a minute ago."

Nanoha laughed softly, knowing that though what Mikan said was half meant to be a joke, it was true.

"Hey! Chibi!" Tsubasa called suddenly, slamming Mikan's dorm door open, surprising them both.

"What, Tsubasa Sempai?" Mikan's voice had an edge in it that informed Tsubasa he had almost came in at a really bad time. Almost.

His eye twitched. "I guess you were changing."

Nanoha smiled. "Mikan was. Finished just in time."

Tsubasa let out a sigh. Thank god for Mikan's uncanny luck. **(A/n Luck? Mikan? Uh nooo, I don't think so)**

"Anyway, next up is Retsu with Natsume. You might want to watch."

Mikan blinked, looking thoughtful. "Well, okay. I better go watch. Only god knows what can happen. Thanks, Tsubasa Sempai."

He heaved another sigh. "No prob', Mikan. See you there in a few." Looking exhausted, he closed Mikan's door softly.

Mikan turned to Nanoha. "What's up with him?"

Nanoha smiled a little, and said. "Well, he's supposed to fight against a pink haired girl later on. He said she resembled someone he knew and treasured."

"_Pink haired girl? Misaki?" _Mikan thought, remembering her energetic pink haired Sempai. _"Nah…It can't be… right?"_

_XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx_

Natsume and Retsu faced each other, crouching and panting heavily. They had been battling with each other since half an hour ago. All the blows were either deflected or countered by the other.

So it's merely have been:

Retsu: *attacks*

Natsume: *deflect* *attack*

Retsu: *counter*

Natsume: *counter*

Retsu: *deflect* *attack*

And then rinse, wash and repeat.

Both of them never thought that their skills were on par with each other.

Expect the unexpected, I guess?

Mikan, on the side lines, watched the pair intensely, her eyes not blinking twice in a minute. She was at a loss. When Retsu landed a blow on Natsume, she cheered but then her heart cracked when she saw Natsume getting hurt.

Then again, when she saw Natsume landing a blow on Retsu, she cheered but her heart ached when she saw Retsu take the blow.

She didn't know who to cheer on, neither did she knew what she was supposed to feel in situations like this.

When Mikan finally closed her eyes, both Nanoha and Retsu heaved a sigh of relief.

"Man, her eyes are freaking scary. How in the world did she go so long without blinking?" Tsubasa whispered to Nanoha.

"Ahahaha… Mikan Chan is just…worried about those two. They're both, you know, reckless after all…"

"…Worried? Well, if you put it like that, I certainly understand. Anyway, I have my hands full. Next up is me, and I'm having to go against this girl named…"

"Oh, you mean her! She's the one that just transferred over right? She's so lively, it's almost like Mikan!"

Tsubasa sweatdropped. "Uh, yea."_ "This is going to surprise Mikan like it did to me," _Tsubasa thought, as he scratched the back of his head.

A loud ringing sound was heard, grabbing everyone's attention. Mikan sighed. "A draw, huh…"

Nanoha placed her hands on Mikan's shoulder. "Now, now, Mikan Chan. Speaking truthfully, isn't this _good_?"

Mikan sighed again. "You're right." Placing her hand over her heart, she groaned, "God. This is too stressful for a young girl like me."

Nanoha smiled at Mikan's antics.

"Oh yea, it's Tsubasa Sempai's match now, am I right?"

Nanoha blinked. "Yes."

"And after that, it's me AGAIN?"

Nanoha smiled. "Yep."

Mikan groaned, slapping her forehead. "For goodness sake, I already had four matches earlier! And it's barely one quarter og the whole competition!"

Nanoha laughed slightly. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Hey, that's what you get for being the best fighter here. Apparently, the school wants to show off it's great assets."

Mikan slumped back onto the wall, exhausted, closing her eyes.

"Well, I'm—"

"—**Up next! Andou Tsubasa and Harada Misaki!"**

Mikan's eyes shot open as she dropped her cup of water onto the ground.

"_**What the fuck?"**_

**Well, how was it? I did my best on this chapter, I swear, but it doesn't seem…good enough. I freaking re-did this three times and this was the result. Well, er, I don't know. I'll be busy like shit now, and please forgive me for my language here. I don't know if I can update fast, but I'll try. :3**

**Ta-ta for now, and please LEAVE A REVIEW**


	20. International Competition 2

**Here's Chapter 20. I'm having a sore throat now, and I feel very irritated and agaitated. I wonder why. My sore throat just healed two days before, and it came back again today. It's always like that. It's been like this for a month now, and I'm going crazy.**

**XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX**

_Recap: _

"—**Up next! Andou Tsubasa and Harada Misaki!"**

Mikan's eyes shot open as she dropped her cup of water onto the ground.

"_**What the fuck?"**_

_End of recap_

Mikan sank to her seat, groaning and muttering silent curses. "Things can't get any worse than this."

Retsu patted her back sympathetically. Bad luck seemed to trail after her like it was a helpless puppy with a leash on. And Mikan, although reluctantly or perhaps not knowing it, was holding on to that very leash rather tightly.

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Retsu joked, trying to get Mikan to be more optimistic.

Mikan stayed silent, and Retsu sighed. Suddenly, screams and cheers erupted in the air, grabbing their attention.

"The match's over, huh," Mikan mumbled. "That wasn't half a minute."

"**And so! The winner is TSUBASA ANDOU!"**

Another blast of cheering were heard, this time, along with some 'boo's.

"It's expected. I mean, he's been training. Together with us while that Misaki girl trained with some other amateurs."

In Mikan's mind, it made sense. But there was something else. This was Tsubasa. He would never fight against Misaki, let alone win her in a match. All those arguments and debates too. What Misaki wanted, he gave. During their friendly match, Mikan always saw. Tsubasa had a chance of winning, and she knows that Tsubasa knew it too, but he would always let Misaki win. Always. He had always gave in to her.

"**Next up! Sakura Mikan—"**

Mikan sighed. Her turn.

"—**Versus Hyuuga Natsume!"**

A flash of emotions briefly fleeted through Mikan's eyes before disappearing completely. "I guess this would happen sooner or later, right?"

Retsu agreed. "That's right. Don't avoid it, but rather, face it. Kick his ass for me, Mikan," He grinned.

Mikan sighed wistfully. "You know I'm never going to be able to do that.

Retsu rolled his eyes. _"That's what she says."_

Mikan rolled her eyes along with Retsu, knowing exactly what was in his mind, and walked casually onto the field.

Natsume walked into the field at the same time, and caught her eye. They held each other's gazes for a moment before Mikan smirked, breaking the gaze. Natsume blinked, speechless. In normal cases, during competitions and situations like this, he was supposed to smirk first; not the other way round!

Mikan could feel it. The tension was there, practically floating in the air, between her, Natsume and the audience.

When they were at an arm's length away from each other, Natsume gaze faltered. "Are we really doing this?"

Mikan's expression did not change, if not, only became more intimidating, cold and ruthless.

"Natsume, I will kill myself first before this match between us becomes a draw. It will not be same as the match you had with Retsu earlier on." Her voice rang clear in the night, sweetly melodic, like silver bells ringing from a faraway place.

The crowd stayed silent as a breeze blew past them. Natsume shivered unconsciously.

"There it is, it's always there. We didn't have to worry after all. Her other personality will always show up on the battle field." Seiya laughed, standing at the side-lines.

"It's scary," a girl commented from his right side.

Seiya furrowed his eyebrows. What was it again? Amelia? No, Anne? Closer. Anna? That sounded right. Anna.

"What is?"

"Her expression right now, how she deals with all of this, and how she fights," another voice answered.

Blue haired. Curly. Nonoko?

"It's terrifying," Hotaru spoke as she walked up to them with Koko, holding large bags of popcorns.

"Any-o-how, that attitude of her definitely does make her hot," Koko grinned.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Her? Hot? Are you blind?"

Nanoha frowned. "She's definitely hotter than you."

Retsu snorted. "Ha. No shit." ** (A/n: How did all of them get here in the first place?)**

Seiya and Koko laughed. "Owned," they joked simultaneously, and hi-fived each other.

A small smile could be seen on Hotaru while the bubbly twins were full-out giggling. Although inwardly seething, Luna put up her best fake smile she could right at that moment, and laughed along with them.

"_Just you wait, Sakura." _She smirked. _"I just got the right thing for you."_

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

If he did not want to lose and get his bones crushed beyond medical help, he had to start fighting. Seriously. There was not a moment to spare hesitating.

Mikan was serious. She wasn't joking earlier when she told him to be careful. She wasn't joking when she said she's kill herself before this match became a draw.

"Natsume! Is this your best? Don't tell me I've been anticipating this so much and you're fighting like a dickhead?"

Natsume gritted his teeth as he continued dodging Mikan's ice daggers endlessly.

"Come on, stop running and start attacking already! You have not attacked even once!"

Natsume grunted. "How am I supposed to do that while your daggers are flying _everywhere _like bloody _insane _and it won't stop _flying._"

Mikan blinked, and grinned. So that was it. Her daggers always launched itself at high speeds and almost instantly creating new daggers and launching itself again. Although she could control it, it seemed as if the daggers had a will of their own.

She didn't stop her daggers though. "Counter it, then. Ice is weaker than fire, right? No, actually, I'm positive of that." **(A/n Don't shoot me if I'm wrong!)**

Natsume scowled. But he hadn't had a choice now, had he? He shot fire daggers to counter each one of Mikan's daggers. Mikan frowned. Was he stupid or what?

Then, almost as if Natsume could read her mind, the fire daggers vanished and were replaced with a thick wall of fire around Natsume as a shield.

Mikan's frowning ceased. This was much better. She grinned, as she stayed still.

After a few moments, Mikan blinked in confusion. Was Natsume waiting for her to attack or…"

Suddenly, she was thrown off the ground from the back.

Mikan grimaced. Natsume was smart. He had a lot of methods and ways. She quickly did a back flip in the air and landed on her two feet, the dust flying off the ground due to the impact. Not sparing a moment of hesitation, she charged for Natsume.

It was a good trick. A very good, well thought of trick, in fact. He had fooled her into believing that he would be inside the fire barrier. Instead, he snuck out and landed a surprise attack on her.

Natsume blinked. Fuck, Mikan was _fast_.

Then, he felt a pair of hands grab his wrist and he groaned. "Oh shit—"

_WHAM_

Mikan was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Natsume stood up, hands on his aching hips. "Bloody hell, so you do still throw people around." Without giving her time to retort, Natsume ran towards Mikan at an incredible speed. Though he might not know it, he was as fast as Mikan.

Mikan quickly stepped to her right instinctively to avoid Natsume, but he was a step ahead of her. Having known Mikan and being her partner for years, he knew Mikan inside out. Almost. A fireball slammed Mikan in her side, burning through her clothes and causing her to fall to the ground with a thud.

"Ow," Mikan winced as she spotted the bruise-burn at her side. Turning her attention back to Natsume, she smiled.

Natsume was taken off guard. What kind of insane person smiled during a match like this?

Suddenly, a loud boom was heard, and Natsume was thrown out of the field in a split second without even realising it. A mixture of wind, fire and ice trailed after him, and disappeared into the air subsequently.

"**And the winner is Sakura Mikan!"**

The gang blinked. Within a heartbeat, Mikan had attacked Natsume with so much force he was threwn out of the field.

Nanoha smiled. "Guess Natsume's fire had hurt like a bitch for her to throw him like that."

"Tsubasa!" Misaki called after Tsubasa, who was desperately trying to escape from her clutches.

"Oi! Tsubasa!" Misaki repeated, panting. Seeing as she was getting no reaction from the escapee, she stopped in her tracks and yelled. "Tsubasa! You stupid son-of-a-bloody-bitch! STOP RUNNING, BASTARD!"

Tsubasa tensed up as his body instinctively reacted. He turned around, rather slowly, to meet face to face with a breathing hard Misaki.

"Err, hi?" Tsubasa said hesitatingly as he waited for her to catch her breath.

Misaki twitched, as she stormed over to him.

"What the hellis wrong with you?" Misaki growled. "What the _bloody fuck _is wrong with you, Tsubasa!"

Tsubasa felt cold fear course through his veins. "What do you mean?"

Misaki gritted her teeth.

"You! You just suddenly disappeared on us four years ago without any notice! Just like Mikan! Not only that! You never once called and told us you were okay! Did you know exactly how much we fretted and worried about you? We almost went fucking crazy! All of us!"

Tsubasa held up his hands in surrender. "Hey! I'm really sorry for doing that," He started, cold beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "They gave me a very short notice and I haven't had enough time to—"

"—Bullshit!"

"…"

"Tsubasa! Don't lie! I've known you for years, and you always start sweating buckets when you lie. In other cases, you rarely sweat. Unless you're training."

"I…"

"Please, Tsubasa, I want to know it. The truth."

Tsubasa sighed and ruffled his hair messily. "This is never going to work," he muttered. Well, it might be embarrassing for him, but if Misaki wanted the truth, then she shall get nothing else but the truth.

"I…Well, goodbyes make parting harder, right?"

Misaki blinked. "Pardon?"

Tsubasa looked at her in disbelief. Did she really want him to repeat? Like seriously?

Misaki caught his look and burst out laughing. Tsubasa frowned, waiting for her little laughing fit to end. To him, it wasn't all that funny.

"Partings? Harder?" She said between laughs. "That—That was the reason? You're joking, right?" Tsubasa gave a blank look, void of any emotions. And it scared Misaki greatly, promptly bringing her out of her laughing fit.

Misaki cleared her throat. "Sorry about that."

"No problem."

The atmosphere between them was awkward and tense. Neither said anything for a few good moments, causing them each to desperately find a spot, anywhere, for them to look and feign interest at.

"_I shouldn't have laughed," _Misaki berated herself silently. _"Tsubasa was right. If he told me beforehand, we would really find it hard to part—for good. Worse, I might not even let him go! If I were in his position, I would have…probably done the same thing."_

"_Damn," _Tsubasa thought to himself. _ "I shouldn't have done that. God knows what she's thinking now. She's probably freaked. I've never, in my whole life, gave her a blank stare. Would she take it as anger, hate and what not? I hope not…"_

"Hey!"

The duo blinked.

"Yes?"

They blinked once more.

"You go first."

Both their eyes showed a hint of disbelief and amusement.

"You start," Tsubasa offered, a little on the edge of laughing out loud there and then. But the mood will totally fall, and Misaki might laugh with him in the beginning, but then she probably would wallop him later for turning the serious mood into a not-so-serious one. So he tried his best to hold back his laughter.

Misaki coughed into her fist.

"Um. Well, I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have laughed earlier. What you said made sense, and yea, I would probably do that if I were you. That was really stupid of me."

Tsubasa could have bawled right there and then. Misaki never apologised. Never, even if she knows that she was the one truly at fault. And here, she was apologising. To him. It was probably the first time.

"Err, no. I'm the one who should be apologising. After all, I was a wimp and decided not to bid my goodbyes. I guess I should have remembered that you guys would be worried. I was irresponsible. I'm sorry."

"No, what you did was understandable. For yelling at you earlier, I'm sorry."

"No, I still made you guys worry in the end, even if what I did was understandable. It was a cowardly act, and for that, I'm sorry."

"No, as I've already said; I'm sorry. I supposed to be apologising here. I'm the one who was wrong."

"No, no, no! I left you guys back then without a warning, and even tried to lie my way out just now! For that, I apologise. I'm sorry."

"…I'm sorry."

"…No, I'm sorry."

Misaki twitched in annoyance. How long were they going to keep this up? "I SAID THAT I WAS SORRY SO JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT. STOP APOLOGISING TOO OR THIS THING WOULD NEVER END!"

Tsubasa sweatdropped. "Yea, okay. Sorry."

"WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK DID I JUST SAY?"

"_Did she drink some booze?" _Tsubasa thought. "Yea, um. Don't apologise." Rather stiffly, he grinned.

Misaki huffed. "Good." She walked briskly over to his side. "Hey, let's take a tour."

Tsubasa blinked.

During the time Misaki had chased after Tsubasa, a match had went by, and Nanoha was the –as expected- winner of the match. It barely lasted for five minutes, and it was over in a flash. There were, in all, another two more matches to go to conclude the end of the International match between the Alice Academies all over the world. Just two more and it would all end. For good.

Nanoha dusted her hands as she walked out of the ring field. "There. Now it's all finished and I can finally relax. And enjoy the last two matches. Out of all thirty-five matches."

Seiya grinned. "Well, better than someone sulking over here."

"Hey!"

Nanoha laughed at Mikan's antics. "Oh yea, that's right. Mikan, you're up for the finale match right? Ooh, I'm looking forward to it. No doubt, Mikan is going to own the challenger once more."

Seiya rolled his eyes. "Once more too many times."

Mikan laughed, not fully understanding the duo. Why? Why did they put so much faith in her? How did they know she would win? She was a human too; she might just slip up and fall. She was not perfect. And she had that nagging feeling that the match later was not going to be all that perfect.

Mikan watched with dazed eyes as Natsume walked onto the ring field. So it was his turn again, huh.

"_**Next up! Hyuuga Natsume and Hyuuga Aoi!"**_

Murmurs quickly took over the initial silence after the announcement of names. "Hey, they have the same surname!" "Are they siblings?" "Don't you think they look kind of similar?" "I'll say this is suspicious."

Mikan blinked. Natsume blinked. Aoi remained passive.

Slowly turning his head, Natsume shot a flabbergasted look at Mikan, who just awkwardly smiled in return. Natsume turned his head back to look at Aoi who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

Natsume felt his heart get ten times heavier. Who exactly was this girl standing before his eyes? His very own sister had been taken away by the Anti-Alice academy since she was three before his eyes, and never had been spotted after that. How he had longed to save his sister. But thing was, he was simply not strong enough at that moment, and he was forever caged in as a prisoner in the academy. He couldn't; he wasn't able to.

But here she was, standing right before him in the flesh. As a challenger. As his rival. As an assassin of some sort. As a member of the dangerous ability club.

And if he remembered correctly…

"_**Begin!"**_

Without hesitating, Aoi dashed head first towards him. Not giving Natsume a chance to process the beginning of the match, she slammed her palm into his stomach and pushed him back a good twenty meters away. A sizzling sound was heard throughout the campus, as Mikan winced. Natsume's training clothes, although black, was a little charred in the middle.

…A fire user. Like him.

What was he to do? Fight back?

He couldn't.

Meanwhile, Aoi was confused. Extremely confused. Who was this Hyuuga Natsume? He looked so familiar. The moment she saw him, she felt safe. Like she belonged there. With him.

It sort of pained her to just slam her palm coated with fire into his toned stomach. She really, really didn't wanted to, but hey! You can't blame her, can you? Mikan was watching; Nanoha, Retsu, Seiya, Sakura Sensei and the rest of the students here were watching. She _couldn't _lose. Not to this random guy standing before him. This, was her first real match between assassins, and she was going to prove the cohort wrong. She was not weak; and she could fight.

She saw the look on his face when their names were announced. It was filled with disbelief, and regret. Probably disbelief at their same surnames, but regret? Of what?

Then she saw him look at her, and his eyes widened and showed his conflicting emotions. And when she saw his eyes, her heart gave a quick leapt it almost made her gag. The same eyes. The same eyes as the one slowly fading away in her hazy memories. The same one as her own.

…

Who was this guy? And how was she going to fight someone that her heart decided not to fight?

**Done, finally. Yes, I admit this was slow. Pardon me for that. And I've kind of calmed down now. :D**

**I WILL be busy from now, as it is my streaming year and I'm doing not-that-well for my exams. And those living in Singapore, you know what SYF is. I'm busy practising everyday after school to brush up my skills. So, I WILL be busy. Not a statement, but a fact.**

**And, sorry for any errors that is just there, burning your eyes right out of you. It isn't beta-ed or anything, so forgive my mistakes. **

**My teacher told me something. When a person ask you to do something, you'll not do it. But if they ask you **_**not **_**to do something, you would be tempted to do it. This is the way of life. BUT IN THIS CASE, I AM NOT GOING TO FOLLOW WHAT THEY SAID. So, please review. So, please review. **


	21. The Burn

**Hi guys! I'm finally back after hibernating for god-knows-how-long, and I decided to get my lazy bum off the couch and update this fiction! Goddammit, I know I'm slow, please do shoot me. I won't hold you responsible for that, I swear. Now, let's enjoy the next Chapter of Betrayed. **

**Disclaimer: (I haven't done this is a long time) I do not own Gauken Alice. However, Retsu and Seiya are mine, and if you dare touch them, I'll personally hunt you down. :D**

_**Warnings: Omg, really, please read this! This chapter contains A LOT of vulgarities due to immense pain and anger. I don't want you guys to, like, scold me for not warning you about the excessive use of vulgarities. I did inform you. Don't say I didn't. I even underlined this!**_

**And thanks for always reviewing Betrayed and keeping up with it despite my irregular updating. I'll make it a point to reply to reviews from here on. Anynomous reviewers, you might get your reply here. You might not. It depends.**

**Here comes the next chapter, peeps! Watch your back!**

_**XxxXxxXxxXxxXxx**_

_Recap:_

_Then she saw him look at her, and his eyes widened and showed his conflicting emotions. And when she saw his eyes, her heart gave a quick leapt it almost made her gag. The same eyes. The same eyes as the one slowly fading away in her hazy memories. The same one as her own._

…

_Who was this guy? And how was she going to fight someone that her heart decided not to fight?_

_End of Recap_

_XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxx_

_**Aoi's POV**_

What's this? What's happening? What am I doing? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to kill him? Attack him? He keeps dodging! I can't do this. Ugh, so messy! I don't understand! What's wrong with him? Why won't he attack me properly? Why does he have that expression on his face? Why can't he just fight so that this stupid match ends?

I can't think! What am I supposed to do? I keep attacking endlessly and he keeps dodging! And why am I so confused? I've never met him before! Why is my mind in turmoil? Why can't I attack properly? Why are my attacks half baked? What is happening to me?

Stupid guy. What was his name? Natsume? Yea, I think that was it. Natsume wouldn't stop dodging. But he wouldn't put all his heart into attacking either. His actions are uncoordinated. I saw his fight with Retsu; he was a professional assassin. So, why?

I can't fight with someone who is like that. He is not even thinking about winning. His way of fighting just makes me unable to fight him seriously. Why is he bringing his emotions into the fight?

The more I continue attacking, the more his expression twist painfully. And when I see his face contort, my heart silently cries.

Why?

Should I just give up? I don't think I can take this. Should I just withdraw from the match? If this goes on, it will become a draw, and we would have to fight again later. Judging from his expression, he doesn't want to fight me. And I don't want to fight him either. But I can't lose; Sakura Sensei will give me an earful later. This is my one and only opportunity; I can't lose. But then again, Natsume's skills are by far superior compared to mine; just that he isn't really fighting his best. So, I would lose either way, right? But how can I just withdraw like this?

Goddamn, this sucks.

I continued attacking as he pondered over something, dodging when he needed to. His eyes were clouded in confusion and I was just about to give up completely. I. Couldn't. Take. It.

A white ribbon flew up into the air as we both ceased moving. My eyes grew wide as I let out an inaudible 'why'. Gasps and whispers filled the air and I stood there, looking at him, dumbstruck.

"_**A-And the winner is, Hyuuga—"**_

Natsume gave me a small, weak smile. I stared after his retreating figure.

"—_**Aoi!"**_

Hyuuga Natsume had dropped out of the competition willingly.

XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx

"Explain. Now." Natsume seethed, narrowing his eyes at Mikan who fidgeted nervously under his gaze.

"Well, um…It's sort of obvious, and uh, you can guess what happened," Mikan chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head.

"I swear when you wake up, you'll be bald. Spill," Natsume threatened, patience diminishing at a worrisome rate.

Mikan gulped. _"Oh shit, shit, shit, shit. I can't believe I forgot to tell him about Aoi! Goddamnnit! I'm so going to be skewered alive." _ She wiped her sweaty palms on her skirt, coughing in attempt to ease the tension.

"Well," Mikan started, hoping to high heavens she would be able to escape alive with just one broken bone. "I, uh, sort of rescued Aoi on a mission when I arrived here." As soon as she said that, she felt like jumping off a cliff. Natsume had been trying to save Aoi for _years _and out of the blue, the job had been done without him even knowing. And he was her _brother_, for god's sake. "U-Um, n-no, I had many failed attempts trying to save Aoi. Really."

Natsume had his jaws clenched shut as he continued to stare blankly at Mikan.

"And well, she dislikes being weak, thus she always begged us to train her. We did train her, and she wanted to prove herself that she was not weak. She wanted to protect herself." Mikan bit her lips. Wrong move. This totally implied that Aoi couldn't rely on Natsume to protect her.

Still meeting Mikan's eyes head on, Natsume chose to remain silent.

"I-I sort of," Mikan stuttered, feeling afraid of what was to come next. "f-forgot to tell you."

"The fuc—" Natsume snapped, hissing uncontrollably.

"—Mikan? What are you doing out here in the forest? It's the finale! You're up next!" Aoi called out, walking over to the duo.

Natsume stiffened at the sound of her voice and he clenched his jaws shut once again.

"Well, yea…" Mikan hesitatingly replied, eyes shifting to Natsume. He was staring at Aoi with an expression Mikan swore she had never seen before. The gears in her mind began to rotate, although slowly, as she realised what the siblings truly needed.

"Aoi? Stay here for me, alright? This guy here is not really feeling that well, so take care of him for me, would you? I can't leave him here, so you would have to do it. I'll get you something from Central Town later, promise. See you later, Aoi!" Mikan grinned as she started to run out of the forest.

"H-Hey! Wait, Mikan!" Aoi called, surprised and confused.

"Do what you need to," Mikan whispered as she ran past Natsume, patting him on the back, completely ignoring Aoi. "Sorry."

Mikan laughed lightly as she heard Natsume mutter a string of curses.

XxxXxxxXxxXxxxXxxx

"Hey, Sakura! Wait a minute! Stop running!" A voice called out from behind her. Mikan rolled her eyes. She was busy, couldn't she see that? Or else why would she be running? Nevertheless, Mikan sighed and stopped running, turning to look back at the irritating person.

"What is it, Luna?"

"G-God, *huff* you run *pant* too damn fast!" Luna panted, as beads of perspiration trickled down her face to the ground.

Mikan rolled her eyes. "You're welcome to jog with me every morning, Luna."

Luna widened her eyes in mock horror. "God, you're kidding. No, I _won't. _I hate exercising. All that sweat will ruin the make up on my face!"

Mikan resisted the urge to face palm. "Anyway," She sighed in annoyance. "What do you want? You're not one to have a chat with me without a reason."

Luna smirked. "You know me well, Sakura. And don't call me Luna, it's gross coming from you."

"Just get to the point, woman. You're irritating."

Luna scowled. "Fine! God, you're so impatient!"

"Hey! I'm supposed to be up for the finale match right now! You're wasting my time!"

_**SPLASH**_

Dripping wet, Mikan looked at Luna in confusion. "Wha—AHHHH!" She let out an agonizing yell as she felt her skin being pinched hard by an invisible force. Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor, writhing in pain as she felt invisible flames licking her skin, turning them into ashes with its fiery heat.

"You asked me to get to the point, so I did. You're such a bitch, do you know that, Sakura Mikan? You do know Natsume had lost to you on purpose, right? He wasn't fighting seriously! You were his past lover! Yet you showed him no mercy and you even mocked him! How could you! After all that he had went through for you…And then you act all high and mighty, fooling around with others. I saw it. His eyes. The pain in them literally made my heart tear into two! I've never seen Natsume look so lost and confused before! How could you forget to warn him beforehand? _How could you?_" Luna shrieked, throwing her hands up into the air. "That was an extra strong paint stripper. It contains chemicals which will burn your skin although there are no flames. Enjoy and savour the taste of it, Sakura. The taste of unbearable pain."

Mikan squeezed her eyes shut and tried her best to not look at how her skin was slowly turning black with each passing second. She could literally feel her arm sizzle and melt under the heat. The smell of burnt flesh slowly diffused into the air, making Luna cringe in disgust. She looked at how Mikan was writhing on the floor, holding back her screams and yells, and couldn't help but to feel a little guilty for what she had done. Was this too extreme?

"ARGHHHHHHHHHH! AGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Luna winced. She looked at Mikan's hands slowly turning from dark red to black. The moment she saw a hint of Mikan's flesh, she bit her lip.

A little while longer, Mikan screams slowly died down although she was still gritting her teeth. She was lying flat on the floor, unable to move an inch. Some parts of her skin were completely burnt off, and the hue of her flesh contrasted against the black, burnt colour of her skin.

Mikan looked horrible.

Luna stared at Mikan. Why wasn't she moving? Why wasn't she getting up and beating her up? Why wasn't she healing herself?

…Had she gone too far..?

XxxXxxXxxXxx

"—_**Mikan Sakura? Calling once!"**_

The audience pursed their lips, the tension radiating off them. Where was Mikan? Why was she not appearing? This was the grand finale!

"_**Calling twice!"**_

Everyone sat up straight as they prayed fervently. Mikan would drop out if she didn't appear, and with her dropping out, there was no chance for their school to win any longer. When a member was out, the whole school disqualifies immediately.

"_**Calling thri—"**_

"—Don't you _dare _finish that sentence."

Screams and squeals erupted from the audience the moment they heard the voice. They craned their necks around to catch a glimpse of the brunette.

Although she still had the same poker face on, Mikan appeared dishevelled, her hair poking out in different direction, unlike the neat ice queen they once knew. Mikan was panting lightly and her skin had a tinge of pink in it. The audience wrinkled their nose as a pungent smell overcame them. What was that? It smelt like burnt chicken which smelled off. Burnt flesh?

Mikan walked over to her side of the field as she tried to reign in her anger. God _damn _that Luna.

"_Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Damn her to hell. Fucking bitch. Go to hell. Go to hell. Go to hell. What the fuck did I do to you? Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Fucking hell!" _Mikan chanted in her head. _"Fucking bitch. That bloody hurt like bloody fuck! What the fuck did she want with me? If that was for some lame shit reason, I'll fucking rip her head off! My whole body practically melted like plastic! I swear if not for my healing alice, I would've probably died! God damnit, that cost me two thirds of my energy level…And it's only fucking temporary! I'll have to strip the healing alice down later after the competition. Healing myself completely is too much of a risk. My energy level will probably drop to zero. Although the pain has died down, but my skin still hurts to the slightest touch. I have to fight using alice. I'm completely unable to compete physically. I won't be that unlucky that my opponent has the nullification alice too, right? God, I swear I'll fucking rip Koizumi's throat out and feed it back to her. Fucking hell."_

Mikan eyed her opponent warily. She wasn't in time to catch the name of her opponent. Her opponent had long hazel coloured hair and her body's curves were more defined than someone of Mikan's age.

Mikan grimaced. She was competing against an adult. _"I swear, only this kind of shit can happen to me. Try going through unbearable flames for a good ten minutes and compete against an __**adult.**__ And wasn't adults restricted from competing? God damn,"_

"_**START!"**_

Mikan immediately found herself barely blocking a punch aimed straight for her face. She winced as her over sensitive arm came into contact with her opponent. _"What the fuck? I wasn't ready and how the hell did she get over here?"_

Mikan painfully threw a roundhouse kick which her opponent skilfully dodged. She threw a punch at the young adult before successfully kneeing her in the stomach.

Like a bolt of lightning, the woman got up onto her feet and dashed behind Mikan, aiming for the back of her head. Her movements were so fast; it didn't give Mikan time to register.

Mikan found herself kissing the floor in seconds. Gritting her teeth, Mikan pushed herself up before running to land another attack at her opponent. She _couldn't _lose.

As Mikan had expected, the adult had dodged the attacked with her reflexes. Pissed off, Mikan shot an ice dagger from up below the ground, just right under her opponent.

Mikan smirked when she saw her opponent failing to notice her trick. Her win.

Not half a second later, Mikan took her words back. Her eyes widened in shock and horror as she saw her ice dagger disappear. _"Nullification alice."_

Mikan cursed like never before, putting her earlier outburst to shame. _"What the fuck do the gods have against me?" _

Mikan grimaced as she felt the burning sensation intensify. Her temporary healing was wearing down fast and she had no other options but to attack physically, putting her strained body in risk. Mikan snorted. _"If Alice won't work on her, I have to other choice but to attack physically, do I? I swear I'll fucking kill Luna later. I'm the only person in the world who can get two years' worth of bad luck in a day." _

Immersed in her thoughts, Mikan took a blow on her stomach from the elder. Stumbling back, she took another hit to her face. _ "She's too fast, I can't—It's getting blurry, I can't see—What's happening—What am I—MIKAN, MOVE YOUR ASS!" _Her disorientated thoughts did nothing to help her though. She flew backwards as the opponent kicked powerfully in her stomach without mercy.

She landed on her back with a thump, groaning in pain as the burning sensation increased. _"The temporary healing alice is wearing off…I can't win at this rate…" _Cursing loudly, she jumped onto her feet in a matter of seconds, wincing when she heard her spine crack.

Suddenly, she saw a blurry figure rush towards her at an unbelievable speed. Her eyes grew wide as words she was trying to form got stuck in her throat.

In a few seconds time, it would be—

_**WHAM**_

—the end.

'How could this be?' These four words resonated throughout everyone's mind, as they watched Mikan fall with a resounding thump.

The young adult towered over Mikan's unconscious body, staring without a hint of emotion. "To think you've improved this much…Mikan…"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxxXxxx

**Yuki: I thought it would be appropriate if I ended it here! I apologise for not uploading it earlier! And yeah, well, this **_**is **_**a fiction, so what happened to Mikan is totally reasonable. They have alices, and I believe it can work this way too. Temporary healing, I mean.**

**Mikan: Yuki thought of this idea because, recently, two of her classmates got second degree burns from boiling soup and they had to go to the hospital as the wound was a very large area. Poor them.**

**Yuki: They were screaming really loudly and it sounded agonizing. I'm just glad it wasn't third degree. In case you don't know, having second degree burn is like having fire on your skin for a good ten to fifteen minutes. Only that half a minute has passed while you're screaming like nobody's business.**

**Mikan: Imagine your whole body burning. The effects are real and the skin will get burnt. So, yea.**

**Yuki: And for the last part, there's a clue in the first few chapters. A very, very, small one. I don't think anybody else have noticed it yet. You guys would probably never find it. (:**

**Mikan: Please remember to review, alright? Yuki almost cracked her head open trying to write this.**

**Yuki: Credits goes to **_**Snowflake **_**for stopping my attempted suicide in time. :P See you, and do review. And Ed, if you're stalking me and reading this, yea. LJY also had a second degree burn. Shhh… :P**


	22. Stop screwing around!

**Yuki: Hi once again! Here comes the next chapter of Betrayed! Thanks for your reviews for the last chapter!**

**Mikan: Once again, Yuki doesn't own us, Nanoha Chan included. She owns Retsu and Seiya, though.**

**Yuki: Thanks, Mikan dear! Anyway, I'm so excited! This story is **_**finally **_**reaching its climax. After twenty plus chapters and it's at its climax. Phew. I like to go slow, so yea. (:**

**Mikan: *with granny's accent* She sure is a grandma!**

**Yuki: Go to hell, Mikan! And by the way, follow me on twitter if you want. I'll be posting my progress on my fictions there so you'll have an idea when I'll update. Also, if you have any questions, or you just want to say hi, just tweet on my wall. My username is yukiyuiyuki. Now, with that done, let's start chapter 22! **

**XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxx**

_Recap:_

'_How could this be?' These four words resonated throughout everyone's mind, as they watched Mikan fall with a resounding thump._

_The young adult towered over Mikan's unconscious body, staring without a hint of emotion. "To think you've improved this much…Mikan…"_

_End of Recap_

"What the hell do you mean by that? Mikan's in a critical state?" Nanoha exclaimed, panic showing on her features. Hotaru stood rock still beside her, staring stiffly into Tsubasa's eyes.

"I'm not lying!" Tsubasa said desperately. "The moment she passed out on the battlefield, her skin turned red and swollen! She's in the academy's hospital now and she won't wake up. Turns out that she was actually fighting with a second degree burn and a maximum of twenty five percent of her energy!"

Nanoha's eyes widened. "Twenty-five? And she was competing against an _adult_? Is she out of her mind?"

Tsubasa groaned. "Never mind that, the burn! The burn! She's been fighting with a second degree burn _all over her body_! Furthermore, her opponent had the nullification alice! Did you see how Mikan's ice dagger disappeared?"

"Oh, who cares about that! More importantly, her energy level! She could have died! What was she thinking? Plus she must have used the temporary healing skill that Sakura Sensei taught us! Imagine how much energy that took from her! She might even be at the brink of death while I'm talking!"

Tsuabsa remained frustrated and panicky while Hotaru's eyes widened. "W-What do you mean by that?" Mikan might die? Energy level? Second degree burn?

Nanoha jumped a few times, showing her frustration. "I'm saying that she has a chance of dying!" Nanoha wailed. "It's blatantly obvious, Imai!"

"D-die? Why?"

"You were her best friend and yet you don't know! Mikan must never use too much of her energy level! If it reaches below a certain percentage, she would have an eighty percent chance of dying!"

Hotaru stood still as she let the information sink into her head. Promptly, she turned to Tsubasa, her voice cracking slightly. "Oi, shadow. Bring me to the emergency ward."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Natsume stood before Mikan, as still as a rock. His facial features were stiff as he looked at Mikan in the hospital bed, looking deathly pale. Strands of auburn hair were sticking to her flushed face as she did her best to breathe with the oxygen mask. Tubes were inserted all over her body. Natsume looked on, rock still, as the soft but steady beeping sound coming from the heart monitor.

Fragile.

Yes, fragile. That was exactly what Natsume had thought in mild shock. Mikan, the one who never lost to any matches, looked fragile. Almost as if she could break by just a simple touch of her hand.

Natsume had thought Mikan was invincible. He had thought Mikan was able to pull through to the end, no matter what the circumstances were. He thought Mikan could avoid and counter all sorts of attacks –whether aimed to hurt her or not- and triumph over everyone else.

Was he wrong? Perhaps Mikan was still the same Mikan he used to know. Maybe she wasn't that strong. She was a girl after all. Perhaps he was too blinded by everything else that was happening—with Aoi—that he never noticed that Mikan was not asstrong as he had once thought. Was she just putting up a facade to hide her own weakness?

"Relax, she's fine. As bad as she looks, her healing alice will do its job. In fact, she does not even need to be placed in the emergency ward."

Natsume whipped his head around to find a youth with hazel short, bob hair. His eyes narrowed. Mikan's competitor.

"Y-You!"

The brunette blinked at Natsume's sudden outburst the moment she stepped into the ward.

"Why the hell did you pummel her up? Now she's as dead as a log; I haven't seen her this fragile in a long time!"

The brunette raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "What are you saying? It was a competition against assassins!"

Natsume visibly stiffened. "You could at least gone easy on her." He narrowed his eyes.

The brunette placed her hands on her hips as her vein pulsed in her forehead. "Mikan is the best assassin in this academy. I couldn't let my guard down. Besides, what do you think I am? An esper? How was I supposed to know that she had a second degree burn beforehand?" She shrugged. "Besides, even if she had a serious burn along with injuries from me 'pummeling her to the ground', it's not as if she would die."

Rage bubbled in Natsume like never before. That cold, heartless, sadistic _bitch _who assumes that the victim would always spring back into top condition.

The brunette caught sight of the fury in Natsume's eyes and her own eyes widened in amusement and interest. "Now, relax for a moment! I did not mean it like that!" The brunette tried to explain herself, lifting up both of her hands, trying to pacify the raging teen. "What I had meant is, Mikan has a superb healing ability like none other and as long as her heart's beating and she's under hospital care, she'll make it through. No scars, no injuries, nothing. Not even the most fatal injury can kill her with that amazing ability of hers, unless— Anyway, the point is, stop worrying already! She'll be okay!"

Natsume's crimson eyes narrowed at the blabbering brunette. Though she was an adult, very much an adult, she resembled a child desperately trying to clear his name. _"How did she even know that much about Mikan anyway? She's just a competitor…who knows both of our names…and knows more about Mikan than I do. 'Not even the most fatal injury can kill her, unless—' …Unless what?"_

"And why the fuck should I believe you?"

"I don't know, and frankly, I think that you already d—"

A low groan interrupted her speech, followed by soft, shuffling noises.

"God, just shut up and go away already…You're disturbing my sleep…"

Natsume stared at the figure on the bed, his eyes not betraying the mind whirling emotions he was currently experiencing. "Mikan?" His voice came out as a hoarse whisper.

"Mn."

The brunette smirked in triumph. "See? What did I say? There, she'd turned out all fine, healthy and pink, right?" She grinned at the scowl on Natsume's face, before turning to face Mikan. She folded her arms. "Get up, Mikan. You're fine; you do _not _need to rest any longer. You've been dead for a whole day, after all."

The command irked said patient greatly. She scowled as she sat up slowly, her body instinctively responding to the command issued by the familiar voice. _"Who the fuck was that?" _Mikan growled in her mind as she turned to look at the brunette. Hazel met Hazel.

"The fuck?" Mikan cursed, eyes as wide as saucers. She jabbed a finger at her competitor accusingly. "You!"

The brunette smiled, as calm as ever.

Mikan held a look of pure shock and disbelief. She scrambled out of her bed, nearly flinging her bed sheet out of the window in the process. Peering into the other's face, she jabbed her finger, once more, precariously close to the brunette's face, her mind trying to absorb the absurdity of the situation.

"I want to hear it. State. Your. Bloody. Fucking. Name."

She smiled. "Azumi Yu—"

As fast as lightning, Mikan's hand flew over to gag the brunette before she could even finish saying her name. Eyes disbelieving and slightly shocked out of her wits, Mikan looked to the side. "Freaking A. Don't finish that name. Not yet." Slowly, Mikan's wide eyes trailed to look at the brunette. Narrowing her hazel orbs, she bit out, "You went into hiding."

The brunette nodded, atill smiling.

"And you never thought to tell me," Mikan gritted out. "Your daughter."

A tense atmosphere settled in the room as the brunette gently held Mikan's hands, bringing it down from her mouth. "I'm sorry, Mikan."

Mikan blinked. "A simple sorry doesn't solve everything, mom."

Yuka sighed. "Same old Mikan you are. Here, how about a deal? You'll let me explain and I'll treat you to howalons."

Mikan arched an eyebrow. "As many as I want?"

"As many as you want."

Natsume stood at the side, eyes wide, not being able to fully comprehend the relation between the two. However, he knew just one thing.

…

Surely Mikan was not going to fall for that?

"Ace."

Natsume felt capable of burning his brains when he saw Mikan's satisfied grin.

Same old, same old.

**XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxx**

Hotaru's eyes twitched uncontrollably.

Who in their right mind was stupid enough her to call her on the day she had just found out that her best friend had almost died? Hotaru contemplated on sending her newest invention, Baka Cannon 300, over to shoot the caller's brains out until it was an unrecognizable mess of splattered blood and—

Giving a loud cry of frustration, Hotaru picked up the phone roughly and held it to her ear. "Speak, you bloody piece of shit who dare call me on this fucking inauspicious goddamn day!"

"…_Hotaru?"_

Hotaru blinked, recognizing the voice. She furrowed her eyebrows slightly.

"Mikan?"

"_Er yea. What got you into such a foul mood, geez."_

"…"

Hotaru heard Mikan sigh.

"_Anyway, would you come over for a while? There's something really fucking bizarre and amazing going on here and I figured that you would shoot my brains out if I didn't tell you to drop by."_

Hotaru stayed silent for a moment. "You're supposed to be unconscious."

"_I'm not, unfortunately. Who told you that, anyway?"_

"…"

Hotaru heard Mikan sigh once more.

"_Whatever. Just come and I'll explain why I ain't dead yet. Brace yourself and don't forget your gun. You'll thank me for this."_

_**Bzzzt**_

Hotaru stared blankly at the the phone in her hands.

What was going on…?

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxx

Of all things she had braced herself for, Hotaru had definitely not expected _this._

"A-Au-Auntie?" Hotaru gaped at the sight of the older and matured version of her best friend.

Yuka smiled wider, eyes sparkling with joy. "Hota Chan! It's been so long!" She embraced her in a bone crushing hug. "How are things going?"

_**BAKA**_

"Don't hug me out of nowhere, auntie." Hotaru said stoically, her baka gun held firmly in her hands. Not caring about her aunt who was groaning on the floor painfully, she turned to face Mikan.

"You told me she was dead."

Mikan chuckled nervously. "Well, I thought she was at that point in time. Apparently," She narrowed her eyes at Yuka, "she went into hiding."

Hotaru arched an eyebrow. "Without thinking of contacting us for the past _thirteen _years?"

"Fourteen."

"…" Hotaru stoically turned and walked over towards Yuka. Threateningly, she held out her gun and pointed it at her head. "Either die by my hands, or die by Mikan's hands. Choose one."

Two pair of eyes bore into her head apathetically as Yuka struggled to make a decision.

Eyes darting between Hotaru and Mikan, Yuka found herself actually feeling intimidated by the two. One she could handle, but two? Nah.

"How about three, you guys listen to my explanation _before _you do anything to me. Deal? Besides, I'm sure Hotaru would want to know the whole story," Yuka grinned as her eyes darted to Hotaru.

Hotaru stood still, not lowering her arm as she stared at Yuka. "Spill it," Hotaru managed after a few seconds of silence. "But I'm not moving. Neither are you." She looked down stoically to meet Yuka's eye.

Yuka sighed as she shifted herself to an upright position, with her legs crossed. "You see," She started. "What Mikan told you was partially true. All that she had seen; it wasn't a lie. She, at that point in time, thought that I died. However, I most certainly did not, and Mikan realized that a few years ago."

Hotaru blinked and scrunched her nose up. "You didn't say anything about this, Mikan."

Mikan grinned. "Well, you never asked." Mikan turned to Yuka, frowning a little. "Yeah, I found that out _by myself _while on a _mission_. I _recognized your presence _at the _AAO hideout._ What the hell were you doing there? And you said you would give us the whole story. What you mentioned earlier was most certainly not detailed."

"Well, technically speaking, you were not alone. There was a weird slivered hair boy with you, wasn't there?"

"Stop changing the subject, mom," Mikan groaned. This was getting old, fast.

"Okay, okay. Long story short, I—"

"—We _want_ the long story," Hotaru hissed out.

"…After Mikan witnessed my 'death', she followed my orders and ran away. The guards that killed me chased after her, and I was left there. My condition was critical; I wasn't able to do anything about the guards. After that, Reo Mouri found me and healed my wounds. I was indebted to him. After I told him my story, he let me seek refuge in his place for a while. He's a great comrade."

Mikan twitched. She was getting tired of constantly having to repeat herself. "And what is your story?"

Yuka cleared her throat. "Those people chasing us were sent by Death."

Hotaru arched an eyebrow. "Death?" She echoed.

Yuka nodded. "Yes, Death. A being which hungers for power, more power, and more power."

"Why you?" Mikan asked, confused.

Yuka looked at her weirdly, as if to say 'are-you-stupid?' "I had power."

"…"

"Hey, Mikan?"

"Yes, mom?"

"I have something to confess. Please ready yourself."

Mikan raised an eyebrow.

"You see, as I have told you, Death wanted me for my power."

"Yes, but since you're here now, the matter's solved already, right?"

"As a matter of fact, no. He's after the three of us."

"You mean he's not dead? Then how were you able to come here?"

"Reo Mouri. Haven't you heard that he was having a concert here? He took me here and I preteded to be one of the contestant in the international match."

Mikan blinked and looked to Hotaru. "A concert?"

Hotaru nodded, lips pursed tight. After a moment or two, she frowned. "You said the three of us," She turned to Yuka. "Who's the third? You, Mikan, and who? I'm sure as hell that I don't have 'power'."

Yuka sighed. She wasn't able to escape the scrutinizing eyes of Hotaru's. "My daughter. Mikan's other half."

Mikan eyes widened.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxx

**Yuki: Done! :D Things are starting to faster from now! Pardon me if you feel that they are not reacting as much as how much you were excepting them to.**

**Mikan: I have a what?**

**Hotaru: An other half.**

**Mikan: But!**

**Yuki: It'll work out, Mikan. Relax.**

**Mikan: If you say so…you're the writer, after all…**

**Yuki: Yep! Do review guys! I want to know if it was too fast for ya all. And for those who wanna follow me on twitter, the username's yukiyuiyuki. But a warning, I'm not necessarily sticking to this anime after I've completed this fic. (: Ciao!**


	23. Luna is who!

**Um, whoops? Sorry guys, I'm like, around 7 months late? Please don't kill me yet; I have my reasons which I'm not going to bother explaining cause there's just too many. So, if I'm not wrong, after the international match with Mikan and, I'm sure all of you know, Yuka, Mikan went into a slight coma (courtersy of Luna) and woke up to the sight of her mother, and later realizes that she has an other half. She had already sort of made up with Hotaru and the rest, and is in a sort-of relationship with both Retsu and Natsume. **

**So, this chapter would be sort of a run through of many people's feelings and most of the story plot are revealed here. A lot of you were really looking forward to Mikan's other half, I hope this doesn't disappoint all of you although I have a feeling it will. You guys might probably kill me after this but I certainly hope not haha. I'm planning on re-doing the front few chapters, nothing's much is going to be changed but you guys might want to read it again. I'll probably be done with it when I upload the next few chappies. **

**Yup okay so I'll be trying to reply to anonymous reviews so here you guys are. Many thanks for staying with me and reviewing! :D**

**To .U: Thank you! :D Thanks for reviewing and I'll try my best to a starving epidemic maybe ;)**

**To DevilishSmirk00: Wow please don't; I have a very strong bakagunphobia yup I'll try my best to update as fast as I can though and I certainly hope I don't get lazy haha. Anywho, you'll know who's Mikan's other half is in this chapter and once again, when you find out, please don't shoot me :D Thanks for reviewing! :D**

**To alittle-bakemono27: It pleases me to know that what I wrote got you humoured Yup, like mother, like daughter :D Thanks for reviewing! **

**To pwenie: Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad to know that got you shocked because that was my intention ;)**

**Disclaimer: See the url? It says **_**fan**_**fiction, does it not?**

**So here's the next chapter, pardon my atrocious grammer :)**

Nanoha sighed and tilted her head up to face the sky, the can of orange juice dangling limply in her hands. She swung her legs in between the legs of the wooden bench and sighed once more. Mikan was drifting away from her –them- and Nanoha didn't like that. Mikan had been her only trusted friend, aside from her childhood friends. Hadn't Mikan been betrayed by them? Haven't they turned their backs on Mikan? They even replaced her with Koizu-whatever Loony!

Nanoha fumed uncharacteristically, still staring up at the azure blue sky. If Mikan's 'friends' had never stepped foot into America's Alice Academy, or better yet, _America_, Mikan would be sitting right next to her, chatting about entirely useless things like ice cream. And now where was she? Chatting with Hotaru and a stranger who beat her into a bloody pulp after Loony sent her into the hospital with severe burns. Nanoha brought her arms up to shield her eyes from the glaring sun. She felt like crying. Mikan was _her _partner, damn it! After all they went through together, Mikan had forgotten about her. She doubted Mikan would even want to stay with them in America's Alice Academy when things settled down.

Nanoha knew that there was probably nothing that could be done about this. No matter how much she argued mentally, how much she clung onto that thin ray of hope, she knew it was practically impossible.

_[Don't worry, my master.]_

Nanoha smiled bitterly at her device. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, raging heart."

It was useless. Mikan wouldn't even spare her a glance.

Luna bit her lips. Mikan had been in critical condition and had almost _died. _And she was the cause of it.

"Luna chan?"

Luna blinked and turned her gaze to her side. She blinked once more in recognition. The cheerful bubble-gum pink haired girl smiled brightly at her and Luna couldn't help but wonder if this would be the first and last time she saw Anna without Nonoko by her side. She nodded her head slightly in acknowledgment, not really having the mood to pretend to be cheerful. Anna's brows furrowed in concern. "Luna chan, are you okay?" Anna paused, her eyes darting left and right. "Why are you sitting in the open field alone? If I'm not wrong, this was where the international competition was held, right?"

Luna merely nodded her head, choosing to ignore the first two questions. "Bad day," she croaked out hoarsely. Anna would probably be satisfied with this half-baked lie. Luna doubt Anna would even notice anything. Did she even know that Mikan had almost died?

"Ah," Anna nodded her head in agreement and seated herself beside Luna on the grassy fields. "So, you've heard the news?"

News? Luna turned to look at her in mild confusion. "News?"

"About Mikan."

Luna felt another wave of guilt wash over her as she gave a nod in reply. Anna sighed heavily and brought her knees up to her chest. "Hospitalised and in critical condition," Anna murmured. "Almost died. Second degree burns all over."

Luna closed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear this at all. However, Anna's muffled voice was as clear as bells. "Who even did that anyway? Seriously? Giving her burns _all over the body_ before she had a match?" Luna winced as Anna continued to rant. "That's too much, what did Mikan do to that person anyway? I'm sure it couldn't have been anything serious, Mikan isn't like that."

Silence washed past them as they both got immersed in their own thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I know I'm ranting," Anna sighed in misery. "I couldn't take it. I was so frustrated. Well, I'll let you have your own space now. Pardon me for intruding. Get some rest, okay, Luna? You look beat."

Luna let her eyes trail after the back of Anna. Like hell she knew why she had hurt Mikan, especially when _he _had told her all about him, and that Mikan was—was what? Luna blinked, and frowned. She then vaguely remembered she had to crush Mikan to gain something she had longed for. Luna gave a loud cry of frustration and clutched her head in her hands.

She didn't understand. One part of her held Mikan close to her, and the other wanted Mikan dead. _"T-They contradict each other, what the hell?" _Luna gritted her teeth and furrowed her brows in concentration. "_I…I can't remember…?"_

Retsu cursed softly as he felt a stinging stab in his calf. He spun around and swept the floor with his legs, tripping the bulky man over. He landed a few hard blows on the man and wrenched the blade out from his grasp. He narrowed his eyes at the crimson blood dripping off from the blade. "Coated the blade with poison, didn't you," his silver eyes gleamed in the darkly-lit corridor. The man glared at Retsu with unmasked fury as he struggled to get his legs out of the tomb of ice. Retsu raised an eyebrow nonchalantly. "No matter," He watched in amusement as his ice slowly crept up to encase the man's thighs. He crouched low and grinned as his hand trailed over the hidden pocket of the man's suit. His fingers clasped around a small vial and his grin got wider.

Triumphantly, he retracted his hand and stood up, smirking. "I have the antidote right here." The ice continued to travel up the man's body. With a smirk, he drank the antidote tauntingly in front of the man. "Thanks for the antidote, and I hope you have a good night's sleep. It is four in the morning, after all," His lips cracked into an insane grin as the ice completely encased the man. He nodded to himself in satisfaction before stalking off in his earlier direction, not at all bothered at the man's wide-eyed stare fixated on him.

Retsu stopped in front of an old storage room and a slight wave of relief wash over him. Hurriedly, he strode inside with quick steps and briefly scanned the room. "Seriously," he muttered under his breath as he stepped over a messy pile of documents in annoyance. "The people here have absolutely no sense of organisation." He stopped in front of an antique shelf. He crouched low and trailed his fingers at the edge of the shelf, before smirking widely. He pulled out a dusty paper envelope with nimble fingers. "Mission accomplished."

He hastily transported back to the academy with the Alice stone Sakura Sensei had supplied him with. He just wasn't getting enough sleep these few days with all the missions…

"Oh, Retsu, you're back," Sakura Sensei blinked in surprise as she stood up from the rock where she had been sitting on. "That was fast; it was barely ten minutes since you left the training field."

Retsu snorted as he tossed the envelope at his mentor who caught it with ease. "I wasn't going to waste my time doing missions slowly when I could actually be resting on my bed," he gave her an accusing glare.

Sakura Sensei smiled sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. "Either that or Mikan has to go for her missions. Thanks, really," she added gratefully. "I wouldn't want Mikan to be up and about doing missions after being injured like that, and the fact that you're bearing the burden of both Mikan's and your missions really helps."

Retsu shrugged in reply and proceeded to walk away with a wave. "No matter, see you tomorrow." He saw Sakura Sensei wave back at him cheerfully from the corner of his eyes and couldn't help but to smile slightly.

When he was a good few meters away from the training felids, he let his guard down and sighed deeply, stretching his arms behind his head. "Mikan better treat me to something good after all I've done for her." He lowered his hands to rub it on his aching neck and blinked in surprise. The light blue alice stone hung limply from his neck and he groaned in frustration. "Goddammit, I just had to be forgetful when I'm actually about to head home and _rest_."

With a curse, he swiftly turned back and walked in the opposite direction he had come from. He just hoped Sakura Sensei was still there, or he had to turn back and walk home again.

"As we thought, it really was true." Retsu paused the moment he heard Sakura Sensei's hushed whisper. He squinted, barely making out two figures standing in the dark.

"This confirms our suspicions," a baritone voice rumbled softly. Retsu raised an eyebrow at the trademark silver earing gleaming in the dark. He heard the tell-tale sound of rustling and he realised that they were looking through the file he had gotten for Sakura Sensei on the mission earlier.

"Yes, who would have thought…? I wouldn't have believed it until I saw it for myself," Sakura Sensei whispered, her voice shaking slightly.

Retsu could not believe what came next.

"Koizumi Luna…Mikan's other half."

If Seiya were to be completely honest to himself, he would admit that he didn't really like Mikan all that much. Well, sure, Mikan was a nice, honest and cheerful girl with the brightest smile one that could possibly enthral even the coldest person on Earth. But Mikan was taking away his most treasured and trusted _precious _friend. His one and only trusted friend whom he had known since he discovered his alice. They had been best friends; they were always together and could never be separated.

He hated it.

He despised Mikan.

He despised the way Retsu would talk about Mikan as if Mikan had pulled his soul out from the very pits of hell.

He despised the fact that Retsu would talk about Mikan whenever he opened his mouth.

He despised the fact that Retsu was hell bent on chasing after Mikan even when he knew he had to go against fate; go against the destiny between Hyuuga Natsume and Sakura Mikan.

He despised the fact that Retsu no longer cared about anything else.

He despised that Retsu was doing missions in Mikan's place.

He despised the fact that Retsu was getting hurt both emotionally and physically because of Mikan.

And most of all, he despised himself because he _couldn't _understand.

…Was just one girl, just _one_, worth all of this pain?

Mikan raised an eyebrow, sceptical. "You're kidding." When she realised that her mother was not even joking in the slightest, she slumped onto her bedroom floor and huffed. "You know what you just said was bizarre enough for us to believe it was a load of bullcrap."

Still on the floor with Hotaru's gun pointed at her head, Yuka rolled her eyes. "Language, Mikan. But it doesn't change the fact that it's all true."

Hotaru, at this point in time, lowered her gun. "Long story short, there is this crazed lunatic called _Death_," She scrunched her nose up in distaste. "Who is also the head of the AAO?" Yuka nodded in confirmation and Hotaru continued. "So, Death was power hungry and came after you. Then when you were in labour," she said incredulously, "he attacked with a soul-splitting alice and your child's soul was separated and that Mikan's other form is Luna?"

Yuka nodded as gravely as she could. "I found out that neither child could be near each other for a period of time without losing consciousness so I decided to keep Mikan and let Reo Mouri take care of Luna."

"And a few years later, Death wanted all of our powers so he decided to chase us down. Thus, you pretended to die and left me to Alice Academy to keep us both safe. Luna was taken by Death a few years ago and you're saying that she's bent on killing me because Death got her head muddled with the memory alice?" Mikan ended her speech as if it was a question. Mikan got another nod of affirmation and she got a sudden urge to strangle the calm woman sitting in front of her. "You're insane," Mikan snorted, running her hands through her bangs. "You're asking me to help Luna."

Yuka paused thoughtfully. "Well, it isn't really her fault, you know," She pointed out. "And as a matter of fact, Luna's circumstances are much worse than yours."

Harsh and blunt, but true, Mikan realised with slight annoyance. "You do know that I'm not all that willing to help her out, muddled or not," she deadpanned.

"You can sure hold a grudge," Yuka said in amazement, shaking her head. "Even after you know that she's being held against her will."

Mikan snorted. "Tell me that after you got burned and bitched at." She turned an accusing glare at Yuka. "And I'm still holding a grudge against you for making Hotaru and I think that you were dead for about 7 years." Mikan could feel the anger well up within her. "I don't really care if you were trying to protect me; you left me alone and made me think that you were dead! And now you suddenly appear and tell me all of these complicated things! I can't believe this," she whispered to herself as she stood up. Gritting her teeth, she walked out of her dorm and slammed the door close. "You should have just stayed dead!"

Lighting flashed outside the window, illuminating Mikan's dorm room. As the rain poured silently, Yuka couldn't help but stare worriedly at the door Mikan had slammed. She stared almost brokenly at Hotaru. "Hotaru," she whispered. "We don't have much time left."

**Well, I'll end it here. So how was it? :D The climax will most probably be after the next chapter so yup :)**

**Do review guys, I want to know how was the chapter. Too confusing? Too crazy? Too rushed? Do leave a review. **


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